Oil on fibreboard. Signed and dated lower left. Signed, dated and titled on the reverse. 40 x 49.7 cm.
Up until September 28, 2025, selected works by the artist will be on display in the Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, as part of the comprehensive exhibition "Zerreißprobe: Kunst zwischen Politik und Gesellschaft. Sammlung der Nationalgalerie 1945-2000". [CH].

• This painting relates to the drama “Der Nachbar des Herrn Pansa” (Mr. Pansa's Neighbor) by Günther Rücker (1924-2008), which premiered the same year.
• The figures are modeled on the costumes worn in play at the Deutsches Theater Berlin, for which Mattheuer also designed the stage set.
• In the 1950s, the author and director Günther Rücker became known for his documentaries and screenplays for feature films and radio dramas, as well as for his plays.
• A year later, Mattheuer created a lithograph of the same name with a similar motif (Koch 176).
• The related painting “Der Nachbar des Herrn Pansa” (1969) is part of the collection of the Panorama Museum in Bad Frankenhausen.
• 55 years part of the same private collection.
• Paintings from this year can be found in the collections of the Museum Barberini in Potsdam and the Berlin Nationalgalerie, among others.
LITERATURE: Stefanie Michels (ed.), Wolfgang Mattheuer: Bilder als Botschaft. Catalogue raisonné of paintings 1950-2003, Leipzig/Frankfurt am Main/Berlin 2017, no. G 69/18 (illustrated in b/w).

Från Leipzig i DDR, Lunds Konsthall, Lund, March 15 - April 13, 1980, cat. no. 19 (with the exhibition label on the stretcher)

Private collection, Berlin (acquired in 1969). Family-owned ever since

Subtly rendered image, in good condition. Some minimal isolated spots of craquelure. Some rubbing around the edges from framing. Tiny isolated professionally retouched spots in the right half of the image. More visible in the upper right part of the image and in the upper right corner of the image under UV light (just minimal in daylight). The condition report was compiled in daylight with the help of a UV light source and to the best of our knowledge and belief.