⊕ MARIE-LOUISE VON MOTESICZKY (AUSTRIAN-BRITISH 1906-1996) (i) HENRIETTE VON MOTESICZKY AND FRIEND TALKING (ii) SWIMMER both oil on canvas (i) 59 x 80cm; 23 1/4 x 31 1/2 in (ii) 37.5 x 50.5cm; 14 3/4 x 20in (both unstretched) (2) Property from the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust Literature Ines Schlenker and Kristian Wachinger, Marie-Louise von Motesiczky 1906-1996. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, Munich, 2011, nos. 99 & 337 Marie-Louise von Motesiczky left Vienna immediately after the Anschluss with Germany in 1938 to travel with her mother Henriette (1882-1978) to England where they were to spend the rest of their lives. Several critically acclaimed exhibitions, notably in Liverpool, London, New York and Vienna, have acquainted the public with Motesiczky’s oeuvre which comprises portraits, self-portraits, still-lifes, landscapes and allegorical paintings.
Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Still life with pansies 1942 oil on canvas; framed 31 x 41 cm signed and dated on the lower right: Motesiczky. 42 directly from the artist; Eric Newton, Amersham (probably acquired in the 1940s); private property, Austria 1942 London R.w.A. Galleries, Exhibition of Works by Allied Artists, 06.05.-30.05., no. 38 (there with the titel "Pansies"); 1944 London, The Czechoslovak Institute, Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture by Marie Louise and Mary Duras, 27.09.-18.10., no. 45 Ines Schlenker, Marie-Louise von Motesiczky 1906-1996. A catalogue raisonné of the paintings. With a selection of drawings, Manchester/New York 2009, no. 56, b/w-ill. p. 154
Marie-Louise Von Motesiczky (Austrian, 1906-1996) Hotel, Paris oil on canvas 45.7 x 30.5cm (18 x 12in). Painted in 1960 For further information on this lot please visit the Bonhams website
MARIE-LOUISE MOTESICZKY* (Vienna 1906 - 1996 London) cigarettes on the table, 1928 oil/canvas, 39,8 x 31 cm signed Motesiczky and dated 1928 exhibited and depicted in exhibition catalogue Marie-Louise von Motesiczky, Vienna Museum 2007, p. 107, N. 31 and in Stadt der Frauen (City of Women), Belvedere 2019, p. 254 Provenance: Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust, Gallery de Zwaan NL, Fine Arts Widder Vienna ESTIMATE € 15.000 - 30.000 Austrian painter of the 20th century. Representative of Expressionism, belongs to the forgotten generation. Her father came from the Hungarian nobility, her mother from a Jewish Viennese banking family. She was the sister of the inventor of the radio tube Robert Hermann von Lieben, her grandmother Anna von Lieben was one of the first patients of Sigmund Freund. Her brother Karl Motesiczky, psychoanalyst and resistance fighter, died in Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1943. She attended the private art school of the Czech artist Carola Machotka in Den Haar from 1922. Studied at the Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main with Max Beckmann, was her mentor and lifelong friend. Held high regard for her and saw her as a successor to Paula Modersohn-Becker. After the Anschluss, she fled to Amersham via the Netherlands and London in 1938, and lived in London from 1945. Deepened her acquaintance with Oskar Kokoschka. Became a friend and lover of Elias Canetti. Took many trips, including to Mexico, where she met her childhood friend Wolfgang Paalen shortly before his death. Received late recognition in 1985 through an exhibition at the London Goethe Institute on the initiative of Hilde Spiel, another exhibition in 1994 at the Austrian Gallery Belvedere. Created unadorned portraits of her mother, haunting self-portraits, and still lifes rich in symbolism. Influence of teacher Max Beckmann also visible in the enigmatic selection and arrangement of objects. "If you only paint one good picture while you're alive, it was worth your whole life." Marie-Louise von Motesiczky, at the age of 16, is convinced of that. Three years earlier, she finished her school career in order to fulfill this dream. Since Motesiczky comes from a wealthy, aristocratic family, nothing stands in the way of her wish and she attends a private painting school. She continued her education with courses at the Frankfurt Städelschule, the Vienna School of Applied Arts and the Paris Académie de la Grande Chaumiere. Max Beckmann, whom she met as a family friend at the age of 14, was particularly formative for the young painter at this time. She admires him greatly and describes herself that a "winged creature from Mars could not have made a greater impression on her." At Beckmann's invitation, the young painter went to the Städelschule in Frankfurt once again in 1927 as his student. In the years that followed she lived and worked in Vienna. In 1938 she emigrated to Amsterdam with her mother, and a little later to England. At that time she met the writer Elias Canetti, with whom she entered into a relationship that lasted more than 50 years. The published correspondence between the two bears witness to an intense artistic friendship, but also to the tragic love affair with the egomaniac and womanizer Canetti. The letters show that the talented artist admires the poet but becomes dependent on him. Canetti is married, has several mistresses, uses and humiliates them, only as a painter does he spur her on and encourage her. The "Still Life with Cigarettes" shown here shows nothing of this supposedly "weak side" of the artist. It was created in 1928 when she was studying with Beckmann and clearly shows the influence of her teacher. Motesiczky draws on individual elements such as can be seen, for example, in Beckmann's "Still Life with a Burning Candle" from 1921. She breaks with the classic perspective and plays with the alternation of surface and space. The improvised tabletop on the light, blackberry-colored fabric serves as a stable base for the lavishly filled jug. Next to the vase of flowers are four cigarettes, which protrude slightly over the edge of the tabletop and face the viewer directly. The colors of the blackberry and cream-colored cloths are skilfully repeated in the blossoms. Although the flowers are not detailed, dahlias and Sweet-Williams can be recognized by their distinctive colors and shapes. How many of her still lifes the picture seems to only show a partial view and the background is only hinted at. The cigarettes, which are placed next to the flowers as an important element in the picture, are exciting. In the 1920s and 1930s they stand for a new attitude towards life in women, which is characterized by freedom, independence and a new, more openly lived female eroticism. The financially independent painter hardly took part in the art world throughout her life, her work was created in secret and was only discovered late. In 1966 her work was presented for the first time in her home country, and in 1994 a solo exhibition took place in the Austrian Gallery Belvedere. On the occasion of her 100th birthday in 2006, the Wien Museum showed this painting together with around 70 other oil paintings by the painter in cooperation with the London Motesiczky Trust. PLEASE NOTE: The purchase price consists of the highest bid plus the buyer's premium, sales tax and, if applicable, the fee of artists resale rights. In the case of normal taxation (marked ° in the catalog), a premium of 24% is added to the highest bid. The mandatory sales tax of 13% is added to the sum of the highest bid and the buyer's premium. The buyer's premium amounts to 28% in case of differential taxation. The sales tax is included in the differential taxation.
MARIE-LOUISE MOTESICZKY* (Vienna 1906 - 1996 London) Still Life with Azalea oil/canvas, 50,6 x 61 cm signed Motesiczky Provenance: Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust, Chiswick auctions GB, Fine Arts Widder Vienna ESTIMATE °€ 5.000 - 8.000 Austrian painter of the 20th century. Representative of Expressionism, belongs to the forgotten generation. Her father came from the Hungarian nobility, her mother from a Jewish Viennese banking family. She was the sister of the inventor of the radio tube Robert Hermann von Lieben, her grandmother Anna von Lieben was one of the first patients of Sigmund Freund. Her brother Karl Motesiczky, psychoanalyst and resistance fighter, died in Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1943. She attended the private art school of the Czech artist Carola Machotka in Den Haar from 1922. Studied at the Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main with Max Beckmann, was her mentor and lifelong friend. Held high regard for her and saw her as a successor to Paula Modersohn-Becker. After the Anschluss, she fled to Amersham via the Netherlands and London in 1938, and lived in London from 1945. Deepened her acquaintance with Oskar Kokoschka. Became a friend and lover of Elias Canetti. Took many trips, including to Mexico, where she met her childhood friend Wolfgang Paalen shortly before his death. Received late recognition in 1985 through an exhibition at the London Goethe Institute on the initiative of Hilde Spiel, another exhibition in 1994 at the Austrian Gallery Belvedere. Created unadorned portraits of her mother, haunting self-portraits, and still lifes rich in symbolism. Influence of teacher Max Beckmann also visible in the enigmatic selection and arrangement of objects, such as azalea, quill, teapot and pocket knife. My longing is to paint beautiful pictures, to be happy through it and to make other people happy," said Marie-Louise von Motesiczky, explaining her tireless, always very personal, artistic work wich she continued into old age. For a long time, the artist was only perceived indirectly, as standing in the shadow of great men: as a student of Max Beckmann, an acquaintance of Oskar Kokoschka or a lover of Elias Canetti. Only as a result of an extremely successful solo exhibition at the Goethe Institute in London in 1985 and a retrospective at the Austrian Gallery at Belvedere Vienna in 1994 and another at the Vienna City Museum in 2007 did she receive the place in the canon of great Austrian artists of the 20th century that she undoubtedly deserves. Her oeuvre, which consists mainly of still lifes, self-portraits and portraits and is committed to a constantly changing, increasingly lyrical, fractured expressionism, can definitely be considered autobiographical. She received a good artistic education at art schools in Vienna, The Hague, Frankfurt am Main, Paris and Berlin. From 1927 she studied at the Städelschule in Frankfurt in the master class of Max Beckmann, who remained her lifelong friend and mentor. She worked intensively in search of her own style; the hope of artistic recognition at home, however, was interrupted with the annexation of Austria in 1938. Motesiczky fled with her mother – her father had died young – first to the Netherlands and then to England, where she lived and worked until her death. The still life with azalea breathes calm, charm and love. A nice red sealed letter can be seen. It lies open and read on the cluttered bureau. The sender also sent a photo of a coastal landscape. Next to the flowerpot is a jackknife that may have served as a letter opener. The bright red feather in the middle could be a decorative object, but also a writing utensil. In her still lifes, Motesiczky likes to show her domestic surroundings; she assigns a special meaning to personal objects. It is quite possible that the letter pictured is from Motesiczky's lover, the writer Elias Canetti, who also fled to England. In July 1943, Marie-Louise von Motesiczky wrote to Elias Canetti: "Dear, dear, dearest person, first I have to tell you how wonderful it was that you came this morning. […]” This familiarity can also be felt in the present portrait. Motesiczky was a master of the portrait. Equipped with an insatiable curiosity for her social surroundings and an admirable power of observation, she created a large number of portraits that are among her most impressive works. Motesiczky explored her model sensitively and understandingly, at the same time with a sharp, unbiased view. She was always concerned with portraying the true character of the person, devoid of any idealization. Critics compared her portraits to those of Rembrandt. Elias Canetti wrote: “You must know […] that you […] have the blessed gift of preserving people as they really are. That's why I love you and that's why I need you, you give me something I don't have and I wouldn't want to live without. [...] You will become the great German portraitist.” Elias Canetti, born in 1905 in Russe, Bulgaria, into a Sephardic merchant family, spent his childhood and youth in Bulgaria, England, Zurich, Vienna and Frankfurt am Main. Only at the age of twelve did he learn the German language, which remained his true homeland. In 1938 Canetti emigrated from Vienna to England with his wife Veza. A tense love affair with Marie-Louise von Motesiczky began, while he also had his wife and other mistresses. In the 1970s Canetti moved back to Zurich, where he died in 1994. Motesiczky has portrayed Canetti several times. PLEASE NOTE: The purchase price consists of the highest bid plus the buyer's premium, sales tax and, if applicable, the fee of artists resale rights. In the case of normal taxation (marked ° in the catalog), a premium of 24% is added to the highest bid. The mandatory sales tax of 13% is added to the sum of the highest bid and the buyer's premium. The buyer's premium amounts to 28% in case of differential taxation. The sales tax is included in the differential taxation.
Property from the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust MARIE-LOUISE VON MOTESICZKY (AUSTRIAN 1906-1996) Bowl of fruit with candelabra oil on canvas 61 x 50.2 cm (24 x 19 3/4 in) LITERATURE: I. Schlenker, Marie-Louise von Motesiczky 1906-1996, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, New York, 2009, p. 197, no. 90, illustrated Painted in the 1940s, Motesiczky uses the flickering flames of three lit candles to illuminate a still life that incorporates tokens of love and abundance. Set before the candelabra is a large and vibrant bouquet of red roses; in the foreground, placed on a newspaper is a cornucopia of apples and pears. The motifs of flowers, fruit and the written word may well reference the happiness she was experiencing at the time with the writer Elias Canetti, the dancing light of the candles silhouetted against the black background perhaps reflecting a moment of magic in the relationship. A preparatory sketch for the painting is now in the collection of Tate’s Archive, the only significant difference being the introduction of the newspaper under the bowl of fruit in the finished work. Nine works from the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust (lots 328-336 ) The nine oil paintings by Viennese emigré artist Marie-Louise von Motesiczky (1906-1996) offered in this sale, follow the sale of eight works on 4th December 2020. Once again the lots span four decades - from the 1940s to the mid-1980s. Marie-Louise von Motesiczky enjoyed a privileged childhood, living with her parents and brother on Brahmsplatz in central Vienna. Her mother Henriette was scion of an illustrious Viennese Jewish banking dynasty. Her maternal grandfather, Leopold von Lieben, was President of the Stock Exchange; her grandmother, Anna, one of Freud’s early patients. She counted the Todescos, and Ephrussis among her family circle, and she, her mother and her brother Karl spent their summers at Villa Todesco in Hinterbrühl, south west of the capital. But over time family tragedy, financial difficulties and the rise of Nazi Germany took their toll. Marie-Louise’s father had died in a hunting accident many years before and her mother’s considerable inheritance gradually diminished through high taxation, poor investments, and the financial crash of 1929. Then, with the rise of the Third Reich and the Anschluss, when Austria was annexed by Germany, she and her mother fled Vienna for the Netherlands before emigrating to England in 1939. Further distress followed when her brother Karl, who had remained in Austria, was arrested and deported to Auschwitz, dying of typhus there on 25 June 1943. The most formative influence on Marie-Louise's artistic development before the War was the German painter Max Beckmann. She had first been introduced to Beckmann in 1920, and kept in regular and close contact with him thereafter. As she recalled: ‘A winged creature from Mars could not have made a greater impact on me’. Later, on her arrival in Britain in early 1939, Marie-Louise was reacquainted with Oskar Kokoschka, a family friend now similarly exiled. In London Kokoschka ensured her inclusion in a series of group exhibitions, and assisted her in the staging of a one-person show at the Czechoslovak Institute in the autumn of 1944. Further group shows followed, and in 1960 she had a second solo exhibition at the influential Beaux Arts Gallery off Bond Street. On the Continent she received wide acclaim for her work in exhibitions in Amsterdam and The Hague in 1952, one of her canvases being purchased by the Stedelijk Museum. The same decade she exhibited in Munich and Düsseldorf, and in the 1960s was the subject of shows in Austria and Germany. In 1985, a full twenty-five years after her work had been shown at the Beaux Arts Gallery, she was the subject of another one-person exhibition in London, at the Goethe-Institut which was widely acclaimed in the press. In 1994 a major retrospective of her work was held in Vienna at the Österreichische Galerie, Oberes Belvedere and in Manchester at the City Art Gallery. In 2006-07 her work was celebrated in a centenary exhibition at Tate Liverpool, travelling to Frankfurt, Vienna and Passau and Southampton City Art Gallery. Also in 2007 Jill Lloyd’s biography of Marie-Louise appeared: The Undiscovered Expressionist. A Life of Marie-Louise von Motesiczky, followed in 2009 by the catalogue raisonné of her paintings by Ines Schlenker itemising over 350 works. Most recently, in 2019-20, Tate Britain held an exhibition devoted to her to inaugurate the gallery named in perpetuity as the ‘Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Archive Gallery’ for all future displays of Tate’s archive holdings in general. The work of Marie-Louise von Motesiczky held in public collections Institutions in the UK holding works by the artist include: the British Museum, Freud Museum, National Portrait Gallery and Tate in London (which also holds her archive); the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, New Walk Museum and Art Gallery, Leicester, Manchester Art Gallery, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh and the Hunterian Art Gallery, Glasgow. Elsewhere her work is in the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin; the Stedelijk, Amsterdam; the Boijmans van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam; the Städel Museum, Frankfurt; the German Literary Archive in Marbach; the Albertina, Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, the Leopold Museum and the Museum Wien in Vienna, and the Lentos Kunstmuseum. Linz. The Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust The Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust, is a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales (no. 7572024) and a registered charity (no. 1140890): www.motesiczky.org. The copyright for Marie-Louise von Motesiczky’s paintings, drawings and correspondence or other written work originating from her, her mother Henriette and brother Karl, lies with the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust.
Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Austrian, 1906-1996 Fire in July, 1942 Signed M Motesiczky (lr) Oil on canvas 22 x 28 1/2 inches (55.88 x 72.39 cm) Provenance: Gift from the artist Thence by descent to the current owner Literature: Goethe-Institut London, Marie-Louise von Motesiczky. Paintings, Vienna 1925 - London 1985, 1985, p. 32, cat no. 27 C
Property from the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust MARIE-LOUISE VON MOTESICZKY (AUSTRIAN 1906 - 1996) Regent's Park signed MARIE LOUISE M. (lower right) oil on canvas 50.8 x 76.3 cm (20 x 30 in) EXHIBITED: Amsterdam, Kunstzaall Van Lier & The Hague, Kunstzaal Plaats, Marie-Louise Motesiczky, 1952 LITERATURE: Machiel Brandenburg, 'Marie Louise Motesiczky. Emotioneel expressionisme' in De Bussumsche Courant, 9th February 1952, n.p. D.H.W. Filarski, 'Marie Louise Motesiczky' in Trouw, 12th March 1952, n.p. Jill Lloyd, The Undiscovered Expressionist. A Life of Marie-Louise von Motesiczky, New Haven/London, 2007, p. 147, discussed Ines Schlenker, Marie-Louise Motesiczky, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, New York, 2009, p. 217, no. 108, illustrated Painted in 1951, the present idealised view of the artist's preferred London park features two elegantly dressed ladies with a decidedly continental air walking in early spring. Behind them blooms a profusion of yellow, white and red bulbs – daffodils, tulips and crocuses. Beyond looms the impressive neo-classical forms of one of Regent's Park’s distinctive terraces, very likely Cumberland Terrace. Property from the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust (lots 820 - 827) Viennese emigré artist Marie-Louise von Motesiczky (1906-1996) parted with few of her works during her lifetime, and since her death less than a handful have appeared on the open market. Lots 820 - 827 span four decades - from 1945 to the early 1980s - and mark the first time a group of her paintings is to be offered at auction. Born into wealth, Marie-Louise lived in Vienna until the Anschluss in 1938, when Austria was annexed by Germany and she and her Jewish mother were forced into exile in Holland. In 1939 they emigrated to England. After the War Marie-Louise was increasingly based in Hampstead, where she and her mother purchased a house in 1960 that remained their home for the rest of their lives. From the very beginning, the primary influence on her art was the German painter Max Beckmann whom Marie-Louise had first met in 1920 when she was just thirteen. She recalled of the introduction: ‘A winged creature from Mars could not have made a greater impact on me’. Beckmann was full of encouragement. From the early 1920s, she attended classes in different studios in Holland, Germany and France. Throughout, she and Beckmann kept in regular contact. He visited her in Paris, and she accepted his invitation to attend his masterclasses in Frankfurt. During these formative years Marie-Louise enjoyed a privileged life. Her mother Henriette was descended from one of Vienna’s most illustrious Jewish banking dynasties. Her maternal grandfather, Leopold von Lieben, was President of the Stock Exchange; her maternal grandmother, Anna, was one of Freud’s early patients. She counted the Todescos, and Ephrussis among her family circle. Growing up in an apartment on Brahmsplatz in the centre of Vienna, she, her mother and her brother Karl spent their summers at Villa Todesco in Hinterbrühl, to the south west of the capital. But over time family tragedy, financial difficulties and above all the rise of Nazi Germany took their toll. Marie-Louise’s father had died in a hunting accident many years before and her mother’s considerable inheritance gradually diminished through a combination of high taxation, ill-advised investments, and the financial crash of 1929. Then, with the rise of the Third Reich she and her mother felt compelled to flee Austria. Further distress followed when her brother Karl, who had remained in Austria, was arrested for assisting the escape of a Jewish family and deported to Auschwitz, dying of typhus there on 25 June 1943. Immediately following the Anschluss Marie-Louise and her mother travelled to Holland. Arriving in mid-March 1938, they stayed with relatives in The Hague, and Marie-Louise renewed contact with Beckmann who was living in Amsterdam. The following January she and her mother emigrated to Britain, living first in London then in Amersham to escape the Blitz. In England she reconnected with Oskar Kokoschka, a family friend in Vienna but now similarly exiled. Marie-Louise later confided that during the war years Kokoschka ‘…sort of adopted me’. Kokoschka ensured that her work was shown in a series of group exhibitions, culminating in a one-person exhibition at the Czechoslovak Institute in the autumn of 1944; he also affected her painterly approach. In her years on the Continent it had been Beckmann who had informed Marie-Louise’s distinctive aesthetic. His Expressionist manner was evident in her use of bold compositional forms, commanding characterisation, strong lighting and vivid colours. But in London Kokoschka’s influence also began to infuse her work. Marie-Louise’s palette softened, her brush strokes became lighter and more feathery, and the gestures of her sitters less angular and severe. The change represented a more tempered approach that suited her increasingly thoughtful, enigmatic, and poetic narratives that typified her post-war canvases. But despite Kokoschka’s support, starting afresh in Britain proved challenging. Marie-Louise commented in an interview in 1952 ‘I myself have exhibited a few times in London, but in spite of positive reviews… I have not had much success. It is a very difficult scene for foreigners.’ Thus, it wasn’t until 1960 that she had her next one-person show in London, at the influential Beaux Arts Gallery. However, bar a notably positive review by J.P Hodin, the show received mixed reviews, and was not a financial success. It was to be a further 25 years before she had another solo exhibition in the capital. Her struggle to establish her painterly credentials was not helped by her relative affluence, as it meant she had no pressing need to sell her work. The situation suited both her own ambivalence towards her talent, her naturally hesitant character and the demands of her overbearing mother. But it exasperated many of those who recognised her special qualities as a painter. These included Beckmann and her brother Karl, and the Nobel prize-winning author Elias Canetti, who became her long-time companion and lover, and the single most important influence on her in the decades after her arrival in England. Meanwhile, on the Continent Marie-Louise’s reputation was growing. She received wide acclaim when her work was exhibited in Amsterdam and The Hague in 1952, one of her canvases being purchased by the Stedelijk Museum. And when she showed in Munich in 1954 and Düsseldorf the following year. In the 1960s also she enjoyed solo shows in Austria and Germany: in Vienna, Linz, Munich and Bremen. Finally, in 1985 her work was once again shown in London, at the Goethe-Institut, and this time it was a triumph. Fortuitously, it coincided with an upswing in interest in German art, and the Royal Academy’s major retrospective German Art in the Twentieth Century. The Goethe-Institut catalogue included contributions by Tate curator Richard Calvocoressi, Gunther Busch, former director of the Kunsthalle in Bremen, and fellow émigré and renowned cultural historian Sir Ernst Gombrich. Widely acclaimed in the press in the UK and abroad, finally it seemed the climate was favourable for the re-discovery of Marie-Louise’s work. Further exhibitions and critical literature on Marie-Louise followed. In 1994 she was the subject of a major retrospective in Vienna at the Osterreichische Galerie, Oberes Belvedere and in Manchester at the City Art Gallery. In 2006-07 her work was shown in an extensive centenary exhibition that started in Tate Liverpool, and travelled to Frankfurt, Vienna and Passau, ending in Southampton City Art Gallery. In 2007 Jill Lloyd’s compelling biography of Marie-Louise appeared, followed in 2009 by the catalogue raisonné of her oil paintings by Ines Schlenker. Most recently, from October 2019 to September 2020, Tate Britain held an exhibition devoted to her life and context, to inaugurate the gallery that has been named in perpetuity as the ‘Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Archive Gallery’ for all future displays of Tate’s archive holdings in general. The work of Marie-Louise von Motesiczky held in public collections In the UK institutions holding paintings and works on paper by Marie-Louise von Motesizcky include: the British Museum, Freud Museum, National Portrait Gallery and Tate in London (which also holds her archive); the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, New Walk Museum and Art Gallery in Leicester, Manchester Art Gallery, National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh and the Hunterian Art Gallery in Glasgow. Elsewhere in Europe her work is to be found in the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin; in the Netherlands at the Stedelijk in Amsterdam and the Boijmans van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam; in Germany at the Städel Museum in Frankfurt and the German Literary Archive in Marbach, and in Austria at the Albertina, Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, the Leopold Museum and the Museum Wien in Vienna, and the Lentos Kunstmuseum in Linz. The Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust The Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust, is a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales (no. 7572024) and a registered charity (no. 1140890): www.motesiczky.org. The copyright for Marie-Louise von Motesiczky’s paintings, drawings and sketches lies with the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust.
Property from the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust MARIE-LOUISE VON MOTESICZKY (AUSTRIAN 1906 - 1996) Study of Canetti Reading oil on board 60.8 x 53.2 cm (24 x 21 in) LITERATURE: Kristian Wachinger (editor), Elias Canette. Bilder aus seinem Leben, Munich, 2005, p. 94, illustrated Ines Schlenker, Marie-Louise von Motesiczky 1906-1996, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, New York, 2009, p. 182, no. 78, illustrated Ines Schlenker and Kristian Wachinger (editors), Liebhaber ohne Adresse. Briefwechsel 1942-1992, Munich, 2011 Painted circa 1945, the present work is Marie-Louise's earliest likeness of Elias Canetti (1905-1994), the Nobel prize-winning author. Born in Bulgaria, Canetti had emigrated from Vienna to England with his wife Veza in 1939, and like Marie-Louise spent the war years in Amersham, north west of London. There Marie-Louise and he began a relationship that would last the next three decades. As a man who professed the need to maintain relationships with different women simultaneously, Canetti was by turns supportive and manipulative of Marie-Louise as a person, but never wavered in his belief in her artistic abilities. As late as 1978 he wrote to Marie-Louise: ‘You are a great painter and whether you want it or not, the world will hear of you. Every picture that you paint will enter the history of art.’ Marie-Louise described Canetti as one of her 'chief gods' (the other two being Max Beckmann and her mother), and she both treasured and endured Canetti’s complex personality, accommodating many of his demands. Among these was the housing of a considerable portion of his library in the house in Amersham, and later in Hampstead, where she kept a room for him to work in. Canetti himself was not an easy sitter, but Marie-Louise featured Canetti in two other notable portraits, one painted in 1960 now in the Wien Museum, Vienna, the other painted in 1992 which she presented to the National Portrait Gallery, London (Schlenker nos. 165 & 315). Canetti was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1981.
Property from the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust MARIE-LOUISE VON MOTESICZKY (AUSTRIAN 1906 - 1996) Cat with flowers signed Montesiczky (upper right) oil on canvas 67.6 x 43.4 cm (26 1/2 x 17 in) EXHIBITED: Amsterdam, Kunstzaall Van Lier & The Hague, Kunstzaal Plaats, Marie-Louise Motesiczky, 1952 Munich, Städitsche Galerie, Erna Dinklage, Marie-Louise Motesiczky, 1954, no. 132 Munich, Galerie Günther Frank, Marie-Louise Motesiczky, 1967, no. 62 (ex-catalogue) Vienna, Österreichische Galerie, Oberes Belvedere, Marie Louise von Motesiczky, 1994, no. 28 (illustrated in colour in the catalogue) LITERATURE: Machiel Brandenburg, 'Marie Louise Motesiczky. Emotioneel expressionisme' in De Bussumsche Courant, 9th February 1952, n.p. Ines Schlenker, Marie-Louise von Motesiczky 1906-1996, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, New York, 2009, p. 192, no. 86, illustrated Painted in 1949 at 'Corner Ways' the house in Amersham, Buckinghamshire bought by the artist's mother, Henriette von Motesiczky, in 1941, the curiosity of the cat in the present work is captured to charming and humorous effect. The composition both elongates and contrasts the feline stretching on her hind legs with the adjacent form of a three-legged table and the rugged upright of the artist’s easel. The cat, Suzi, was owned by Marie Hauptmann. Marie had been the family wet nurse in Austria, becoming the artist's surrogate second mother. She accompanied Marie-Louise and her mother Henriette to England in February 1939, and continued to live with them until her death in 1954. Property from the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust (lots 820 - 827) Viennese emigré artist Marie-Louise von Motesiczky (1906-1996) parted with few of her works during her lifetime, and since her death less than a handful have appeared on the open market. Lots 820 - 827 span four decades - from 1945 to the early 1980s - and mark the first time a group of her paintings is to be offered at auction. Born into wealth, Marie-Louise lived in Vienna until the Anschluss in 1938, when Austria was annexed by Germany and she and her Jewish mother were forced into exile in Holland. In 1939 they emigrated to England. After the War Marie-Louise was increasingly based in Hampstead, where she and her mother purchased a house in 1960 that remained their home for the rest of their lives. From the very beginning, the primary influence on her art was the German painter Max Beckmann whom Marie-Louise had first met in 1920 when she was just thirteen. She recalled of the introduction: ‘A winged creature from Mars could not have made a greater impact on me’. Beckmann was full of encouragement. From the early 1920s, she attended classes in different studios in Holland, Germany and France. Throughout, she and Beckmann kept in regular contact. He visited her in Paris, and she accepted his invitation to attend his masterclasses in Frankfurt. During these formative years Marie-Louise enjoyed a privileged life. Her mother Henriette was descended from one of Vienna’s most illustrious Jewish banking dynasties. Her maternal grandfather, Leopold von Lieben, was President of the Stock Exchange; her maternal grandmother, Anna, was one of Freud’s early patients. She counted the Todescos, and Ephrussis among her family circle. Growing up in an apartment on Brahmsplatz in the centre of Vienna, she, her mother and her brother Karl spent their summers at Villa Todesco in Hinterbrühl, to the south west of the capital. But over time family tragedy, financial difficulties and above all the rise of Nazi Germany took their toll. Marie-Louise’s father had died in a hunting accident many years before and her mother’s considerable inheritance gradually diminished through a combination of high taxation, ill-advised investments, and the financial crash of 1929. Then, with the rise of the Third Reich she and her mother felt compelled to flee Austria. Further distress followed when her brother Karl, who had remained in Austria, was arrested for assisting the escape of a Jewish family and deported to Auschwitz, dying of typhus there on 25 June 1943. Immediately following the Anschluss Marie-Louise and her mother travelled to Holland. Arriving in mid-March 1938, they stayed with relatives in The Hague, and Marie-Louise renewed contact with Beckmann who was living in Amsterdam. The following January she and her mother emigrated to Britain, living first in London then in Amersham to escape the Blitz. In England she reconnected with Oskar Kokoschka, a family friend in Vienna but now similarly exiled. Marie-Louise later confided that during the war years Kokoschka ‘…sort of adopted me’. Kokoschka ensured that her work was shown in a series of group exhibitions, culminating in a one-person exhibition at the Czechoslovak Institute in the autumn of 1944; he also affected her painterly approach. In her years on the Continent it had been Beckmann who had informed Marie-Louise’s distinctive aesthetic. His Expressionist manner was evident in her use of bold compositional forms, commanding characterisation, strong lighting and vivid colours. But in London Kokoschka’s influence also began to infuse her work. Marie-Louise’s palette softened, her brush strokes became lighter and more feathery, and the gestures of her sitters less angular and severe. The change represented a more tempered approach that suited her increasingly thoughtful, enigmatic, and poetic narratives that typified her post-war canvases. But despite Kokoschka’s support, starting afresh in Britain proved challenging. Marie-Louise commented in an interview in 1952 ‘I myself have exhibited a few times in London, but in spite of positive reviews… I have not had much success. It is a very difficult scene for foreigners.’ Thus, it wasn’t until 1960 that she had her next one-person show in London, at the influential Beaux Arts Gallery. However, bar a notably positive review by J.P Hodin, the show received mixed reviews, and was not a financial success. It was to be a further 25 years before she had another solo exhibition in the capital. Her struggle to establish her painterly credentials was not helped by her relative affluence, as it meant she had no pressing need to sell her work. The situation suited both her own ambivalence towards her talent, her naturally hesitant character and the demands of her overbearing mother. But it exasperated many of those who recognised her special qualities as a painter. These included Beckmann and her brother Karl, and the Nobel prize-winning author Elias Canetti, who became her long-time companion and lover, and the single most important influence on her in the decades after her arrival in England. Meanwhile, on the Continent Marie-Louise’s reputation was growing. She received wide acclaim when her work was exhibited in Amsterdam and The Hague in 1952, one of her canvases being purchased by the Stedelijk Museum. And when she showed in Munich in 1954 and Düsseldorf the following year. In the 1960s also she enjoyed solo shows in Austria and Germany: in Vienna, Linz, Munich and Bremen. Finally, in 1985 her work was once again shown in London, at the Goethe-Institut, and this time it was a triumph. Fortuitously, it coincided with an upswing in interest in German art, and the Royal Academy’s major retrospective German Art in the Twentieth Century. The Goethe-Institut catalogue included contributions by Tate curator Richard Calvocoressi, Gunther Busch, former director of the Kunsthalle in Bremen, and fellow émigré and renowned cultural historian Sir Ernst Gombrich. Widely acclaimed in the press in the UK and abroad, finally it seemed the climate was favourable for the re-discovery of Marie-Louise’s work. Further exhibitions and critical literature on Marie-Louise followed. In 1994 she was the subject of a major retrospective in Vienna at the Osterreichische Galerie, Oberes Belvedere and in Manchester at the City Art Gallery. In 2006-07 her work was shown in an extensive centenary exhibition that started in Tate Liverpool, and travelled to Frankfurt, Vienna and Passau, ending in Southampton City Art Gallery. In 2007 Jill Lloyd’s compelling biography of Marie-Louise appeared, followed in 2009 by the catalogue raisonné of her oil paintings by Ines Schlenker. Most recently, from October 2019 to September 2020, Tate Britain held an exhibition devoted to her life and context, to inaugurate the gallery that has been named in perpetuity as the ‘Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Archive Gallery’ for all future displays of Tate’s archive holdings in general. The work of Marie-Louise von Motesiczky held in public collections In the UK institutions holding paintings and works on paper by Marie-Louise von Motesizcky include: the British Museum, Freud Museum, National Portrait Gallery and Tate in London (which also holds her archive); the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, New Walk Museum and Art Gallery in Leicester, Manchester Art Gallery, National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh and the Hunterian Art Gallery in Glasgow. Elsewhere in Europe her work is to be found in the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin; in the Netherlands at the Stedelijk in Amsterdam and the Boijmans van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam; in Germany at the Städel Museum in Frankfurt and the German Literary Archive in Marbach, and in Austria at the Albertina, Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, the Leopold Museum and the Museum Wien in Vienna, and the Lentos Kunstmuseum in Linz. The Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust The Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust, is a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales (no. 7572024) and a registered charity (no. 1140890): www.motesiczky.org. The copyright for Marie-Louise von Motesiczky’s paintings, drawings and sketches lies with the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust.
Seven Art Books. Including: Roy Stuart. Marie-Louise von Motesiczky, 1906-1996. Tom Wesselmann, 1959-1993. Jeff Koons. Francis Bacon. Tamara de Lempicka. Rene Magritte.
