Hinsch, Henry attr. (1909-1979), St. Martin, c. 1960

Henry Hinsch attr. (1909 Nikolaev - 1979 Göttingen), St. Martin , around 1960. Color woodcut, 33 cm x 15 cm (image), 45 cm x 27.5 cm (sheet size).

- Paper with slight creases and holes in the left wide margin

- The Sword of Charity -

In a cubist style inspired by Picasso, St. Martin forms a figurative unit with his horse, his head raised high in the sky and his halo like a sun of charity. Below him sits the beggar to whom the saint shares his cloak. The beggar also fits into the figuration, so that St. Martin and the beggar form a coherent whole. The curvature of the ground creates a reference to the circle of the earth, over which charity should prevail after the war-torn times, which is also conveyed by the "warm-hearted" red.

About the artist

Henry Hinsch grew up in Riga. During the October Revolution, the family fled to Germany in 1917. In Stettin, he studied graphic art under Vincent Weber at the Academy of Applied Arts. On the recommendation of the director of the Hamburg Kunsthalle, Gustav Pauli, the talented Hinsch received a scholarship to the Berlin Art Academy, where he studied under Fritz Burmann from 1937 to 1939. After the end of the war, he settled in Göttingen as a freelance artist. There, together with Helmut Bönitz, he founded the artists' association 'Kreis 34' and became involved in the 'Bund Bildender Künstler (BBK)'. Study trips took him to Italy, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Austria and Belgium.

In 1979, the painter and sculptor was awarded the city's medal of honor.