MARIE-LOUISE MOTESICZKY (Vienna 1906 - 1996 London), cigarettes on the table, 1928

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
START € 12.000

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.

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