Marie-Louise von Motesiczky

A cornerstone of our collection is the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky paintings completed during the 1940s and 1950s in Amersham. These were acquired by the museum with the kind support of the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust.

Motesiczky’s arrival in Amersham was tied inextricably to the war; a watershed moment, the annexation of Austria (Anschluss), drove to the Vienna-born, Czech-national artist to flee Vienna to London and later Amersham in 1940.

Of wealthy stock and maintaining her close circle of influential friends, Motesiczky’s Amersham home formed a cosmopolitan island within Buckinghamshire. Fellow expatriates from war-torn Europe, many friends of Motesiczky from before the war, flocked to them for intellectual, political and creative liberty.

This collection comprises important portraits and landscapes painted by Motesiczky as well as portraits of the artist. Each piece offers a short vignette; the objects share stories or information about the life and work of Marie-Louise von Motesiczky during the 1940s and 50s in Amersham.

More information about Marie-Louise and her works is available on the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky website.

Ines Schlenker's catalogue raisonné of the paintings, published in 2009, is the indispensable reference tool, with its full bibliographic details. You can access an online copy via the website, and it is available for reference at Amersham Museum.

The Undiscovered Expressionist. A Life of Marie-Louise von Motesiczky by Jill Lloyd, published by Yale University Press in 2017, is the definitive biography.

All works by Marie-Louise von Motesiczky © Tate

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