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§ (British & European Fine Art | Live Online, 4th December 2020) MARIE-LOUISE VON MOTESICZKY (AUSTRIAN 1906 - 1996) Property from the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust MARIE-LOUISE VON MOTESICZKY (AUSTRIAN 1906 - 1996) Cat with flowers signed Montesiczky (upper right) oil on canvas 67.6 x 43.4 cm (26 1/2 x 17 in) EXHIBITED: Amsterdam, Kunstzaall Van Lier & The Hague, Kunstzaal Plaats, Marie-Louise Motesiczky, 1952 Munich, Städitsche Galerie, Erna Dinklage, Marie-Louise Motesiczky, 1954, no. 132 Munich, Galerie Günther Frank, Marie-Louise Motesiczky, 1967, no. 62 (ex-catalogue) Vienna, Österreichische Galerie, Oberes Belvedere, Marie Louise von Motesiczky, 1994, no. 28 (illustrated in colour in the catalogue) LITERATURE: Machiel Brandenburg, 'Marie Louise Motesiczky. Emotioneel expressionisme' in De Bussumsche Courant, 9th February 1952, n.p. Ines Schlenker, Marie-Louise von Motesiczky 1906-1996, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, New York, 2009, p. 192, no. 86, illustrated Painted in 1949 at 'Corner Ways' the house in Amersham, Buckinghamshire bought by the artist's mother, Henriette von Motesiczky, in 1941, the curiosity of the cat in the present work is captured to charming and humorous effect. The composition both elongates and contrasts the feline stretching on her hind legs with the adjacent form of a three-legged table and the rugged upright of the artist’s easel. The cat, Suzi, was owned by Marie Hauptmann. Marie had been the family wet nurse in Austria, becoming the artist's surrogate second mother. She accompanied Marie-Louise and her mother Henriette to England in February 1939, and continued to live with them until her death in 1954. Property from the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust (lots 820 - 827) Viennese emigré artist Marie-Louise von Motesiczky (1906-1996) parted with few of her works during her lifetime, and since her death less than a handful have appeared on the open market. Lots 820 - 827 span four decades - from 1945 to the early 1980s - and mark the first time a group of her paintings is to be offered at auction. Marie-Louise lived in Vienna until the Anschluss in 1938, when Austria was annexed by Germany and she and her Jewish mother were forced to emigrate to England in 1939. The primary influence on her art was the German painter Max Beckmann whom Marie-Louise had first met in her early ‘teens in 1920. She recalled: ‘A winged creature from Mars could not have made a greater impact on me’. From the early 1920s, she attended classes in different studios across Europe and she and Beckmann kept in regular contact. He visited her in Paris, and she accepted his invitation to attend his masterclasses in Frankfurt. During these formative years Marie-Louise enjoyed a privileged life. Her mother Henriette was scion of an illustrious Viennese Jewish banking dynasty. Her maternal grandfather, Leopold von Lieben, was President of the Stock Exchange; her grandmother, Anna, one of Freud’s early patients. She counted the Todescos, and Ephrussis among her family circle. Growing up in an apartment on Brahmsplatz in central Vienna, she, her mother and her brother Karl spent their summers at Villa Todesco in Hinterbrühl, south west of the capital. But over time family tragedy, financial difficulties and above all the rise of Nazi Germany took their toll. Marie-Louise’s father had died in a hunting accident many years before and her mother’s considerable inheritance gradually diminished through a combination of high taxation, ill-advised investments, and the financial crash of 1929. Then, with the rise of the Third Reich she and her mother felt compelled to flee Austria. Further distress followed when her brother Karl, who had remained in Austria, was arrested and deported to Auschwitz, dying of typhus there on 25 June 1943. Immediately following the Anschluss Marie-Louise and her mother travelled to Holland where she renewed contact with Beckmann, living in Amsterdam. Then, in January 1939, sh