| Number | AMHAM: OBJECT.2117 |
|---|---|
| Date | Undated, (After 1954) |
| About this object | This extraordinary, affectionate and powerful portrait is of Marie-Louise's childhood nanny and wet nurse, life-long friend and ‘second mother’, Marie Hauptmann, whom Marie-Louise called Ritschie. Marie was an Austrian national but was able to follow the Motesiczkys and enter Britain on a servant’s visa. Her death in March 1954, after ill health and the amputation of her leg, greatly affected Marie-Louise and inspired this painting based on an earlier black and white photograph taken within the Motesiczkys' garden in Amersham. This painting is more an amalgamation of the artist’s memories of her cherished friend then a faithful and realistic rendering. Remembered for her hard work and kind heart, the painting shows her in the garments of her labour, with practical, stained clothing and rolled-up sleeves. Her tools, a scythe and pitchfork, are laid down with her attention directed almost towards the viewer, to whom she sweetly smiles. Marie-Louise has made significant alterations from the original photograph: the composition is shifted with Hauptmann’s full body absorbing much of the canvas, an imagined doorframe flanks her completely. The addition of the doorway, perhaps just a compositional device to the artist, may be read poetically as framing Hauptmann, pushing her back towards the dense foliage and beyond this into a loosely painted, consuming and horizonless void. Dominated by melancholic blues and greens but with Hauptmann alight in warm pastel tones with butterflies and a gentle smile, this painting reflects Motesiczky’s complicated feelings on the passing of Hauptmann. Recounting her grief, Motesiczky said ‘midsummer is gone.’ Presented by the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust in 2023. ©️Tate. (Schlenker ref: 134) |
| Made By | Marie-Louise von Motesiczky |
| Made In | Flat 14, Compayne Gardens, West Hampstead |
| Physical Description | Oil painting on canvas, glazed, in modern wooden frame |