2226 - Märchen, Artur (that is: Artur Ernst Erich Raake). Gerda, the Deaf Singer / Untitled. (The Long Arm of the Law). Two oil paintings on particleboard. Each signed and dated lower right; one is signed and dated again on the reverse beneath a handwritten anecdote. 1973/77. Image dimensions: 30.5 x 25 cm each. Framed identically under glass: 40 x 34.5 cm each.

Märchen, Artur (that is: Artur Ernst Erich Raake). Gerda, the Deaf Singer / Untitled. (The Long Arm of the Law). Two oil paintings on particleboard. Each signed and dated lower right; one is signed and dated again on the reverse beneath a handwritten anecdote. 1973/77. Image dimensions: 30.5 x 25 cm each. Framed identically under glass: 40 x 34.5 cm each. Humorous caricatures by Artur Märchen (1932–2002), who, alongside Günter Bruno Fuchs, Günter Grass, and Friedrich Schröder-Sonnenstern, belonged to the circle of “Berlin painter-poets.” His stage name “Märchen” was given to him in the early 1960s by Rosi, Kurt Mühlenhaupt’s landlady at the “Leierkasten.” - The “Singer” is inscribed on the reverse: “Gerda, the Deaf Singer, based on a true event that took place at the Kiel Opera, as relived by opera singer Franz Mersing at the ‘Kleine Weltlaterne’.” - The singer, depicted with a massive set of teeth, is flanked by a rather toothless judge with stylized eyes and a powerful, oath-swearing hand. - Frame slightly dented.