oil on canvas 61×41 cm
Provenance and literature
Literature: .Schlenker, Cat. Raisonné Marie-louise von Motesiczky,2009, no 226
About the artist
After leaving school at only thirteen, Marie-Louise attended art classes in Vienna, The Hague, Frankfurt, Paris and Berlin. In 1927/28 she was invited by Max Beckmann to join his master class at the Städelschule in Frankfurt. Beckmann had been introduced to the Motesiczky family in 1920 and it was through them that he met the singer Mathilde von Kaulbach (‘Quappi’, 1904–86), who became his second wife in 1925. Beckmann was a lifelong friend and mentor to Marie-Louise whose influence can be seen in her early portraiture and still-lifes, and the allegorical subjects from the 1940s onwards. The second great influence on her work after Max Beckmann was Oskar Kokoschka. Her large circle of friends also included the sculptor Marie Duras, the art historian Sir Ernst Gombrich and the artist Milein Cosman.
Numerous works of her are to been seen in Tate Gallery, London and in the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.