Petristrasse im Regen. 1940.
Oil on canvas.
Schallenberg-Nagel 433. Signed and dated in lower left. Verso titled "Demaskierung / Max Ludewig - Berlin / V.33" inscribed by a hand other than that of the artist in former times and with the old work number "9.33". 58 x 78 cm (22.8 x 30.7 in).
Due to a scarcity of material during World War II Otto Nagel executed this painting in 1940 on a canvas that had already been used for a painting by another artist. According to signature and inscription on verso, the painting underneath was made by the today hardly known Berlin artist Max Ludewig.
• First version of this motif. Today the replica of our painting, which was made a year later, is in the collection of the Nationalgalerie Berlin (cf. Schallenberg-Nagel 460).

PROVENANCE: Otto Linke, Berlin (friend of the artist, verso with several address stamps).
Heinz Willmann, Berlin / Deutsches Komitee der Kämpfer für den Frieden (1950/51).
Private collection Berlin.
Private collection Lower Saxony.

EXHIBITION: Otto Nagel - Werke aus drei Jahrzehnten, Deutsche Akademie der Künste, Berlin/Museum der Bildenden Künste, Leipzig 1950/51.
Berliner Bilder von Otto Nagel, Deutsche Akademie der Künste, Berlin 1954.

LITERATURE: Otto Nagel, Berliner Bilder, Berlin 1979, p. 13.