Tracking Down Prints by August Natterer

Natterer's work sits in a narrow corner of art history, which is exactly why finding reproductions takes a different approach than searching for a familiar name. Here is where the prints actually live.

Auvrique Editorial · Fine Art Editions

The short answer

August Natterer prints are scarce because the originals are held almost entirely by the Prinzhorn Collection in Heidelberg, with only a small share ever reproduced. Your best routes are the Prinzhorn Collection's own publications and shop, specialist outsider art dealers, and reproduction houses that license from the collection. Expect a search measured in weeks, not minutes.

Why the search is harder than it should be

August Natterer was a German outsider artist working in the early twentieth century, and nearly everything he made passed through a single channel. His drawings were collected by the psychiatrist and art historian Hans Prinzhorn in the years after Natterer's death, and the bulk of that material remains with the Prinzhorn Collection in Heidelberg. This is general art-historical ground and it explains the practical problem. When one institution holds most of an artist's work, reproduction rights concentrate there too.

The consequence for anyone searching is that the usual routes underperform. General print marketplaces return little, because the work was never widely licensed. Search engines surface the same handful of images repeatedly. The fix is to search where the originals are, not where prints are sold. Start with the collection itself, then widen. A related question worth settling early is what sizes suit his compositions, since Natterer's drawings were often intimate in scale the best sizes for a Natterer print.

Where to look first

The Prinzhorn Collection is the starting point. Its publications reproduce a substantial share of Natterer's surviving drawings, and its shop is the most likely place to find an authorised print. Beyond that, specialist dealers in art brut and outsider art occasionally handle reproductions, and academic books on the Prinzhorn circle are a legitimate source of plates worth framing. Auction houses are the wrong tool here. Original works surface rarely and at collector prices, which is a different market from reproductions altogether.

Reproduction houses work differently. Some license directly from collections, others reproduce from published plates, and the quality gap between the two is real. If a seller cannot say where their image came from, treat that as the answer. When you do find a reproduction worth buying, the practical choices mirror any other artist's work, canvas or framed canvas versus framed poster, and the same rules apply see a canvas edition in the archive.

Search routes in order

Check the Prinzhorn Collection's shop and publications for authorised reproductions.
Search specialist outsider art dealers, who know the licensing landscape.
Look for plates in academic books on the Prinzhorn circle.
Approach reproduction houses only if they can name their image source.

What to know before you buy

Two checks will save you from most bad purchases. First, provenance of the image. A reproduction made from a published plate will look sharper and truer in colour than one lifted from a low resolution scan, and the difference shows at any size above A4. Second, scale. Natterer's drawings reward close looking, and a print blown up to poster dimensions can lose the density that makes the work hold together. Smaller formats often serve the work better browse a framed poster edition.

If the search stalls, it is worth knowing that this is normal rather than a sign you are looking in the wrong place. The pool of reproduced Natterer images is genuinely small. Broadening the frame helps. Works from the same historical moment and sensibility are far easier to find, and the archive holds several the Auvrique archive Art Forms in Nature on canvas.

When one institution owns nearly everything an artist made, the prints are found where the originals are, not where prints are sold.

Source	What you will find	Reliability
Prinzhorn Collection shop	Authorised reproductions and books	Highest
Outsider art dealers	Occasional licensed prints	Good, irregular
General print marketplaces	Little or nothing	Low
Academic publications	Plates suitable for framing	Good, needs effort

Where Natterer reproductions actually turn up

Key takeaways

The Prinzhorn Collection in Heidelberg holds most of Natterer's surviving work and is the first place to look.
General print marketplaces return little because the work was never widely licensed.
Ask any seller where their image came from before buying.
Smaller print formats tend to suit Natterer's dense drawings better than large ones.

Related questions

Are original August Natterer works ever sold?

Rarely. The core of his output is held by the Prinzhorn Collection, and works that do reach the market are collector items with prices to match. That is a different market from reproductions, and one this page does not cover. For most people, a well made print from a published plate is the realistic and sensible route.

Why do search engines show the same few Natterer images?

Because only a small share of his drawings has ever been reproduced and licensed. The same plates circulate. Searching the Prinzhorn Collection's own materials, or books on the Prinzhorn circle, will surface images the general web does not index well.

What should I check before buying a Natterer reproduction?

Ask where the image came from. A reproduction made from a published plate will be sharper and more colour accurate than one taken from a compressed scan. Also consider scale. His drawings are dense and reward close looking, so a modest print often reads better than a large one.

From the Auvrique collection

Made to order · Every size