Toward the end of her life, Viennese artist Marie-Louise von Motesiczky (1906-1996) at last gained recognition as one of Austria’s most important 20th-century painters. The great art historian Ernst Gombrich praised the artist’s striking individuality and the delicacy and subtlety of her painting. This book celebrates Motesiczky’s work and situates the artist in the troubled history of her times.
Drawing on a wealth of unpublished family archives, including decades of correspondence between Marie-Louise and the writer Elias Canetti, the book tells the story of Motesiczky’s life from her childhood in Vienna amidst talented and distinguished family members to her later years living and working among other exiled artists in England. The book also offers a sensitive critical study of Marie-Louise’s paintings, discussing particular works and the circumstances that surrounded their creation. These include compelling self-portraits, a moving series of paintings of the artist’s aging mother, and lyrical depictions of her English garden.