Rating and value of paintings by Marie Louise von Motesiczky

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Rating and artist value Marie-Louise von Motesiczky    

Marie-Louise von Motesiczky is an autruchian artist well known to modern art lovers. Today, the prices of her works are rising under the auctioneer's hammer.

His oils on canvas are particularly prized, especially by French buyers, and the price at which they sell on the art market ranges from €40 to €20,300, a significant delta but one that speaks volumes about the value that can be attributed to the artist's works.

In 2023, his 1960 oil on canvas Nature morte, bol de fuit avec une grenade sold for €20,300, compared with an estimate of €1,000 to €1,300. His value is rising sharply.

Order of value from the most basic to the most prestigious

The artist's works and style

Marie-Louise von Motesiczky's style and technique reveal a poignant sensitivity and psychological depth that mark her work with remarkable singularity.

Her pictorial approach blends expressive figuration with a palette rich in earthy tones and subtle contrasts, creating works where the intimate dialogues with the universal.

Inspired by her contemporaries such as Oskar Kokoschka or Max Beckmannshe borrows from Expressionism her ability to convey emotion through the controlled deformation of forms, while remaining anchored in tangible reality.

His portraits, often centered on familiar or anonymous figures, acutely capture moods, tensions and frailties, transforming each face into a mirror of human emotions.

In his technique, von Motesiczky favors superimposed layers of paint, creating a rich, vibrant texture that adds a tactile dimension to his canvases.

This process, combined with a subtle interplay of light and shadow, lends a unique depth to his compositions, where every detail seems to reveal a hidden part of the story or character depicted.

The backgrounds, often suggested rather than detailed, serve to reinforce the intensity of the central figures, while setting the subjects in an atmospheric space.

Marie-Louise von Motesiczky, with her technical mastery and incisive eye, transcends the conventions of her time to offer a work deeply rooted in the human experience.

Her paintings, both intimate and universal, bear witness to an artistic commitment that places emotion and inner truth at the heart of her approach, making her a key figure in twentieth-century European Expressionism.

The life of Marie-Louise de Motesiczky  

Marie-Louise von Motesiczky was born in Vienna in 1906, into a cultured aristocratic family with close ties to the intellectual circles of the time. Her youth was marked by a flourishing artistic environment, in which art and music played a central role.

She showed an early talent for painting and, encouraged by her mother Henriette, studied with masters such as Max Beckmann, whose influence on her work was to prove decisive.

Years of apprenticeship in Germany and Paris strengthened her technical mastery and nurtured her imagination, while she developed a deeply personal sensibility.

The rise of Nazism in 1938 tragically changed her life. Forced to leave Vienna because of her Jewish origins, she found refuge in the Netherlands, before settling permanently in London in 1939. Although painful, this exile marked a turning point in her artistic career.

Isolated from her homeland, she channeled her emotions into introspective painting, in which the melancholy of loss shines through. Henriette, the central figure in her life, became a recurring subject in her paintings, her portraits conveying a tenderness mingled with poignant lucidity in the face of old age and human frailty.

In London, although she moves within an intellectual circle that includes Elias Canetti, her work remains relatively unknown to the general public. She rarely exhibits and prefers a discreet life, concentrating on her art and her reflections.

Yet his canvases, imbued with expressive power and profound humanity, are unique testimonies to his era, bearing witness to both exile and resilience.

At the same time, she maintained a constant practice of writing correspondence and diaries, which shed light on her relationship with art and the human condition.

Marie-Louise von Motesiczky died in 1996 in Hampstead, leaving behind a rich and intense body of work.

Today, his work is recognized as an essential contribution to European Expressionism, combining personal memory with universal questions of loss, identity and hope.

Marie-Louise von Motesiczky's stylistic influences

Marie-Louise von Motesiczky's stylistic influences form a remarkable synthesis of tradition and avant-garde. Trained in Frankfurt under Max Beckmann, she drew on Expressionism for a bold exploration of the human psyche.

His compositions reflect this influence with sharp contours, slightly distorted shapes and an intense palette dominated by deep, muted hues.

This expressionist heritage is integrated into his introspective approach, with each brushstroke seeking to capture the emotional essence of his models.

His exile in London marked another key stage in his artistic development. The influence of British painters like Walter Sickert, with their taste for intimate, everyday scenes, is reflected in his paintings, where detail and light play a crucial role.

At the same time, his knowledge of 17th-century Dutch painting, particularly in its treatment of textures and mastery of lighting effects, further enriched his work.

The rigor of New Objectivity, founded by Otto Dix and others Otto Dixa movement that sought to combine realistic observation with a critical eye, also tinged his style with analytical depth.

Marie-Louise von Motesiczky transcends these multiple currents to develop a deeply personal pictorial language. Her works, combining psychological truth and technical subtlety, embody a singular artistic vision, where each painting becomes a meditation on the human being, memory and time.

The imprint of Marie-Louise von Motesiczky

Marie-Louise von Motesiczky's mark on her era lies in her ability to reconcile the major artistic concerns of the 20th century with a deeply personal vision.

A painter of introspection, she asserts herself in a context dominated by historical upheavals and stylistic mutations, while remaining faithful to a quest for universal humanity.

Trained in the wake of German Expressionism, she adopts an approach where line and color convey emotion as much as reflection, and where each painting becomes a window onto the soul of its subjects. 

Her exile in London, imposed by the tragic events of history, enriched her art by offering her a new cultural scene. She blended in with subtlety, bringing a breath of Central European intensity to the British tradition.

His way of fusing local influences and continental heritage enabled him to build a bridge between two artistic worlds, becoming a discreet but essential figure in the post-war artistic landscape.

If we compare her work with that of Walter Sickert or the great Dutch masters, we can see in her a desire to transcend genres, mixing portraiture, genre scenes and modern allegories.

Marie-Louise von Motesiczky also marked her period with the timelessness of her art. At a time when the avant-gardes were experimenting with radical ruptures, she chose to follow a pictorial tradition that revisited the past while dialoguing with the questions of her time.

Through portraits of rare psychological depth and compositions imbued with sensitivity, she gives a singular voice to those who often remain on the margins of the great narratives. 

Far from the noisy movements and ephemeral successes, Marie-Louise von Motesiczky's legacy lies in a silent but vibrant body of work, which continues to resonate with its accuracy, sincerity and humanity. She thus leaves an indelible imprint, bearing witness to a troubled century and a relentless quest for meaning.

Today, she is a woman who is relatively unknown to the general public, but whose sensibility is appreciated by true modern art lovers. This does not mean she is any less valued on the art market.

His signature

Not all Marie-Louise von Motesiczky's works are signed.

Although there are variations, here's a first example of his signature:

Appraising your property

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