Praying Hands

This sketch-like drawing was intended as the basis for a print that Friedrich Neubauer planned to sell. Demand for religious subjects was strong after 1945. During this era, the survivors in particular thankfully recalled the "lasting values" of Nuremberg: its cultural heritage, and the comfort that faith could provide to those who remained. The theme of "Praying Hands" is an allusion to the famous picture by Albrecht Dürer, now in Vienna. The refuge that people sought in their faith in God, and in the art of the past, consoled Nuremberg's citizens, at least for a time, for the loss of their city.