| Description | The collection comprises correspondence, writings, personal and family papers, professional papers and sketches, art materials, photographs, published and printed material, including her personal library, financial papers and audio-visual material, relating to the life and work of Vienna born artist, Marie-Louise von Motesiczky. Accompanied by material collected by Marie-Louise von Motesiczky, relating to her mother, Henriette von Motesiczky, her brother, Karl von Motesiczky and the writer, Elias Canetti. |
| Administrative History | Marie-Louise von Motesiczky was born in Vienna on 24 October 1906. Her father Edmund von Motesiczky von Kesseleökeö (1866-1909), a talented amateur cellist and devoted huntsman, died when Marie-Louise was three years old. Her mother Henriette (1882-1978) came from an extremely wealthy and cultured family whose relations include many distinguished names from the social and intellectual life of Vienna; for example, Franz Brentano (1828-1917), the philosopher; Robert von Lieben (1878-1913), the inventor of the Lieben condenser; Adolf von Lieben (1836-1914), the father of organic chemistry in Austria; Motesiczky's grandmother Anna von Lieben (1847-1900), one of Sigmund Freud's early patients; and her grandfather Leopold von Lieben (1835-1915), director of his own family bank, president of the stock-exchange and vice-governor of the Austro-Hungarian bank.
Motesiczky left school in 1920, and subsequently attended art classes in The Hague under Carola Machotka, at Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main under Johann Vincenz Cissarz and Franz Karl Delavilla, at Kunstgewerbeschule Vienna under Adolf Boehm and Erich Mallina, at Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Montparnasse, and at Studien-Atelier für Malerei und Plastik Robert Erdmann in Berlin. In 1927/8 she was invited by Max Beckmann to join his master class at the Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main. Beckmann had been introduced to the Motesiczky family in 1920 by their relative Irma Simon. He left a strong and lasting impression on Motesiczky, and was to become a life-long friend and influence.
In the 1930s Motesiczky devoted most of her time to painting and traveling, and showed two works at the Hagenbund spring exhibition in 1933. After the incorporation of Austria into the German Third Reich in March 1938, Motesiczky and her mother left Vienna immediately for the Netherlands. In January 1939 her first solo exhibition took place at Esher Surrey Art Galleries, The Hague. Motesiczky's brother Karl (1904-1943) refused to leave Austria and used the family house Villa Todesco in Hinterbrühl near Vienna to shelter Jewish friends. In 1942 he was denounced and sent to Auschwitz, where he died on 25 June 1943.
In February 1939 Motesiczky and her mother moved to England where they were joined by Marie Hauptmann, Motesiczky's former wet-nurse. After a short stay in London, the trio settled in Amersham in 1940. Around this time, Motesiczky also started the most important relationship of her life with the writer Elias Canetti (1905-1994) who migrated to England with his wife Veza (1897-1963) in 1939. In 1943, Motesiczky joined the Artists' International Association and took part in some of their exhibitions. The following year, she had her first solo exhibition in England at the Czechoslovak Institute, London. During this time she also renewed her acquaintance with Oskar Kokoschka, who had been a friend of the family in Vienna.
After the war Motesiczky moved to London. In 1952 she had two solo exhibitions in The Hague and Amsterdam, followed by others at the Städtische Galerie, Munich, in 1954, the Beaux Arts Gallery, London, in 1960, and the Wiener Secession, Vienna, in 1966. In the early 1960s, Motesiczky bought the house at 6 Chesterford Gardens in Hampstead, London, where her mother soon joined her. She remained there until her death on 10 June 1996.
Apart from several works in well-known public collections, including the Stedelijk Museum of Modern Art, Amsterdam, Tate Gallery, London, and the Österreichische Galerie im Belvedere, Vienna, and numerous private collections, the main body of her work was kept together by the artist. ['The Undiscovered Expressionist'/Jill Lloyd. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007.] |