Olympia Auctions is excited to present 28 works by Viennese Jewish emigré artist Marie-Louise von Motesiczky (1906-1996) this month. Marie-Louise rarely sold her artworks during her lifetime, as she liked to hang on to them. This is therefore an exciting opportunity to obtain works by this revered artist via Olympia Auctions in a specialist estate sale titled: From the Studio: Works from 15 Artists' Estates on 20th March 20, 2024.

Frances Carey, Chair of the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust which has consigned the group of works for sale, commented: “Marie-Louise Motesiczky found it difficult to let go of her ‘children’ as she saw her paintings, so most of her work passed after her death in 1996 to the charitable trust she had set up shortly beforehand. After organising a centenary exhibition in 2006-07 and overseeing the publication of a biography in 2007 and a catalogue raisonné in 2009, the Charity has been intent on making the work available for acquisition, principally by public collections and by private owners as well.”

Marie-Louise completed more than three hundred paintings over seven decades and was particularly interested in painting portraits and still lives, subject matter that is especially well presented in the upcoming auction. Through the efforts of the artist’s Trust Marie-Louise’s work is now well represented in leading cultural institutions around the world, ranging from the British Museum and Tate in London (which also holds her archive), to the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge and the National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh. On the Continent her work is in the collections of the Albertina, Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, the Leopold Museum and the Museum Wien in Vienna, as well as major institutions in the Netherlands, Germany and Ireland.

Among the portraits in the sale is an oil on canvas painted in 1960 titled Blonde Woman. The sitter is believed to have been a Spanish girl called Lolita who lodged with Marie-Louise in exchange for sittings. Lolita was the model for at least two other oils titled Lolita I and Lolita III. Lolita III was purchased by Lord McAlpine in the early 1960s and Lolita I is now in the collection of the Leopold Museum, Vienna. Blonde Woman carries an estimate of £1,200 - £1,800 (lot 3).

A charming portrait titled Portrait of a Young Girl in a Blue Dress is thought to have been painted in 1952 when Marie-Louise was on holiday in France. An oil on board, it carries an estimate of £600-£800 (lot 5). An informal oil work titled Evelyn and Friend portrays an Irish woman called Evelyn, who worked for the Motesiczky family in the 1970s and 1980s. The lady in the centre has her arms folded and the female to the side, with white hair is Marie-Louise herself, clutching her palette and paint brushes. Painted in 1980 it carries an estimate of £1,200-£1,800 (lot 10).

A lively depiction of a central dancer surrounded by supporting characters titled Fiesta III is one of three sequential canvases Marie-Louise painted. The work captures her memories of her trip to Spain the previous summer (in 1966). It also draws on her formative years in Germany in the 1920s and ‘30s, where she was influenced by Max Beckmann (1884-1950) and where she exposed to the Expressionism of such painters as George Grosz (1893-1950) and Otto Dix (1881-1969). Ines Schlenker (who compiled a catalogue raisonné of Marue-Louise’s oil paintings) tells us: “Although it is difficult to interpret and make sense of the individual scenes, the inherent danger, subtle threat and indefinable sinister undertones of the painting are inexplicably palpable.” This dramatic work in oil on canvas is estimated to fetch £2,000-£3,000 (lot 9).

Another of Marie-Louise’s work with lots of movement is Old Woman Flowers and Page Boypainted in 1968. Ines Schlenker comments that the subject likely “presents a snapshot of a chance encounter in a public place. ...the scene probably takes place outside a shop on a busy street, where people, hurrying to and fro, go about their business. The ibis (bird) in the background is perhaps the decoration in a shop window.” This colourful oil on canvas carries an estimate of £1,200-£1,800 (lot 11).

Within the still life works by Marie-Louise in the sale is Fruit and Rose painted in 1991. An existing photograph, probably taken by the artist, records the present configuration of a single rose in a vase with fruit and flowers in a basket, arranged on the draining board adjacent to the sink in the scullery at the artist’s London home in Chesterford Road, Hampstead. The photograph, together with the domed wire-mesh food cover which can be glimpsed behind the fruit basket, are now in the Motesiczky Archive in Tate Britain. The oil work, which was exhibited at Manchester City Art Galleries in 1994, carries an estimate of £700-£900 (lot 16). Another still life that was exhibited in the same exhibition in Manchester, is an oil and charcoal work titled Daffodils and Narcissi. The brushes placed against the round vase on the right suggest that the present work was painted in the artist's studio at Chesterford Gardens, Hampstead in London. Painted in 1991 it carries an estimate of £1,200-£1,800 (lot 18).

Cow Stretching Over Hedge in Field is one of two works by Marie-Louise featuring animals in the sale

Aside from house pets, it was rare for Marie-Louise to paint animals in nature, but in this work she seems to have been attracted by the cow's innocent eye and the enthusiastic lick of its large pink tongue, an action she captures with typical wit and veracity. Painted in the 1960s it has an estimate of £1,000-£1,500 (lot 22). An oil work titled Koala is also an unusual addition to her oeuvre. The close-up portrait of a koala sitting in the branches of a tree was painted in 1954 and has an estimate of £500-£700 (lot 1).

A landscape oil work in the sale titled simply Beach Scene was inspired by a holiday that Marie-Louise took in Tunisia in 1973. A photograph from her trip of the present beach and rocks is in the Motesiczky Archive, Tate Britain. Painted in in the early 1970s, it carries an estimate £800-£1,200 (lot 23).

Commenting on the wonderfully rich and diverse selection of works by Marie-Louise, Olympia Auctions art expert, Adrian Biddell, said: “I am very pleased to be offering this wonderful group of works. I have been dealing with Marie-Louise’s paintings since the Trust first started offering them for sale at auction four years ago and I am delighted to be presenting another tranche of works from the artists’ estate. All her compositions carry a strength of character and charm that can’t fail to stir the viewer. As an artist Marie-Louise von Motesiczky was endlessly curious, whether starting a still life, capturing the local landscape on her travels, or embarking on a portrait.

As a portraitist she excelled in observing and recording the features and mannerisms of female sitters in particular. Marie-Louise rarely accepted commissions, so those who sat for her were usually visiting friends or family, unless she came across someone that she found intriguing and then she would ask if they would consider sitting for her. During the sitting she would add her own story, be it her face in the background, or simply the inciteful wit and energy that characterises her work. The works are therefore the product of the strength of interaction between artist and model, an implicit bond that becomes utterly tangible in the resultant canvases. In literal terms each is therefore a type of ‘conversation piece’, the physical manifestation of a relationship that captures the humour of everyday life, its quirkiness and the role of chance.

Humour, chance and quirks were elements that she also celebrated in her still lives. She loved flowers, which she tended lovingly in her garden – roses, rhododendrons, orchids, dahlias, daffodils and narcissi as lots in the present sale attest. Flowers in her paintings play a vital role in her paintings as sources of wonder and vitality that give energy to adjacent static forms, such as Orchid and Clay Figure (lot 6) or Fruit and Rose (lot 16)”.

FOTOCULT Blog by Glaphyra Gusenbauer