Description

Anna Rychter-May (1864 Regensburg – 1955 Jerusalem)

Jerusalem

Material: Watercolor on paper
Dimension: 30 x 20 cm
Frame: Yes

About the Artist:

Anna Rychter-May was the eldest daughter of the court councillor Heinrich May, who was a physician to the Prince of Thurn and Taxis. After receiving a Catholic education for nine years in a convent near Munich, she was enabled to study painting in Munich. Through her later husband Thaddäus Rychter she came to Rudolf Steiner, from whom she received the suggestion to paint the three-part Grail picture “Triptychon”. In 1918 this oversized work of art could be exhibited in Munich. During the First World War she painted a special image of St. Michael for soldiers, which was provided with a saying by Rudolf Steiner. From. 1924-1954 Anna May lived in Jerusalem as an artist and was considered the “last saint of Jerusalem“.

In 1924 they went to Jerusalem, as a series of watercolors of the holy places was ordered from her – but also for the light and colors. She earned her living with paintings that were sold as souvenirs. In 1939, Thaddeus Rychter was called to Poland to paint a church. After Poland was occupied by the Germans, he remained missing and she never heard from him again. She lived and worked in modest circumstances in the Arab house in Jerusalem as the center of the small circle of people who appreciated the spiritual work cultivated there.

In 1954 she died at the age of 90. After her death, a journalist from Jerusalem wrote an article under the title: “Jerusalem’s last saint died“.

In 2014 the Palestinian Heritage Foundation and The Jerusalem Fund sponsored an exhibition of May-Rychter’s watercolors