19th & 20th Century Paintings and Works on Paper 29 June 2021
19th & 20th Century Paintings and Works on Paper Tuesday 29 June, 2pm View the full sale online: www.chiswickauctions.co.uk/auction-calendar/
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FRONT COVER: Lot 28 BACK COVER: Lot 68 INNER SPREADS: Lot 1, Lot 40
Introduction | Ishbel Gray 19th & 20th Century Paintings and Works on Paper
I am delighted to present our summer sale of 19th & 20th Centur y Paintings and Works on Paper. The sale ranges from 19th Centur y European and British pictures to Impressionism and Modernism. The vast majority of the sale is consigned from private collections and is fresh to the market; estimates range from £100 to £12,000. The sale is led by a strong selection of works by 20th Centur y European ar tists (lots 1-43), including Mané-Katz, Willy Eisenschitz, Zoran Antonio Music, Jules Cavaillès, Charles Dufresne, Marcel Dyf, Salvador Dali and Joan Miró. Following on from the success of our December and March sales we are delighted to be offering to the market a third group of works by Austrian émigré ar tist Marie-Louise von Motesiczky (lots 3-11).
Among the earlier works on paper in the sale is a delicate and fascinating view of the banks of the Ar ve in Savoy, Switzerland after John Rober t Cozens (lot 94) and a wonderfully fluid depiction of Erinna of Lesbos by Simeon Solomon (lot 60). 19th centur y European and Victorian genre paintings in the sale feature Pierre Olivier Joseph Cooman’s Artemis and Cupid (lot 68) and The return from the baptism, an impressive and large canvas by Juan Antonio Gonzales (lot 56). Classic British ar tworks include a charming Impressionist oil by Dorothea Sharp (lot 62) and a fine seascape by Edward Seago (lot 98).
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Gabriel Alix During the early 20th centur y an avant-garde school of largely self-taught Haitian ar tists emerged, known collectively as the Centre d’Ar t d’Haïti, also known as Naïve Ar t. The group was led by ar tists such as Hector Hyppolite, Maurice Borno and Philomé Obin who explored Haiti’s rich culture and environment.
Lot 1 Property from a Private Belgian Collection GABRIEL ALIX (HAITIAN 1930-1998) Tigre signed G. ALIX (lower right); inscribed 7399 Issa (on the stretcher) oil on canvas 40.7 x 50.2 cm (16 x 19 3/4 in) PROVENANCE: Galerie Issa, Port-au-Prince (no. 7399) Acquired by the present owner in 2019 Estimate: £1500-2000
The present work, featuring a Henri Rousseau-esque tiger, is executed in bright and saturated colour and is characteristic of the Centre d’Ar t d’Haïti. Gabriel Alix was introduced to Hector Hyppolite in 1946 and moved to Por t-au-Prince the same year where he joined the Centre d’Ar t d’Haïti. He is best known for his distinctive lush jungle imager y, still lifes, religious themes, voudou subjects and exotic animals. Haitian ar t first began to receive attention from the Paris avant-garde in the mid-20th centur y when André Breton visited Haiti in 1945 to deliver a series of lectures at the Centre d’Ar t in Por t-au-Prince. During his visit Breton purchased several of Hector Hyppolite’s paintings and published an essay in 1947 in Surrealism and Painting, on the topic of Hyppolite’s talent. Although Hyppolite (a Voudou priest), was not painting as a surrealist, Breton was captivated by the ar tist’s dreamlike imager y.
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Zoran Antonio Music
Lot 18 ARR ZORAN ANTONIO MUSIC (SLOVENIAN 1909-2005) Motivo Dalmata signed and dated MUSIC 1953 (lower centre); titled, dated and numbered MUSIC MOTIVO DALMATA 1953 12 P-37 (on the reverse) oil on canvas 45.8 x 61 cm (18 x 24 in) PROVENANCE: Private collection UK, since the 1960s Estimate: £12000-18000
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The present painting is from one of Music’s most celebrated series of works inspired by his memories of living in the mountains of Dalmatia: the motivos Dalmata. The canvas exemplifies the painter’s signature style of flattened space and form. Music has created a serene landscape painted with a soft palette of orange, yellow, blue, green and brown. The intimate grouping of the horses is characteristic of works from this series and although they are crowded, they still provide a sense of stillness and peace. Motivo Dalmata was painted in 1953, the year after he had his first major solo exhibition at the Galerie de France in Paris, settling in the French capital the following year. Zoran Antonio Music was born in the Italian town of Gorizia, on the border with Slovenia. He had an unstable childhood due to the political climate in Europe, with his family moving often. He studied at the Academy of Ar ts in Zagreb and later lived in Madrid, but when civil war broke out in Spain he was forced to return to Dalmatia. In 1940 Music moved to Venice where he painted church frescos and developed a style based on Byzantine ar t. In 1944 he was sent to Dachau concentration camp, after his arrest by the Gestapo, an experience he depicted in his later paintings.
19th & 20th Centur y Paintings and Works on Paper
Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Nine works from the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust (lots 3-12) The oil paintings by Viennese emigré ar tist Marie-Louise von Motesiczky (1906-1996) offered in this sale, mark the third time we have had the honour to present the work of the ar tist for sale. Motesiczky’s expressive and ver y painterly style had been formed before the War, in large par t influenced and encouraged by Max Beckmann. On first being introduced to Beckmann in 1920 she recalled: ‘A winged creature from Mars could not have made a greater impact on me’. Following her arrival in Britain, however, it was Oskar Kokoschka a family friend now similarly exiled, who helped champion her work. Thereafter, and ver y much on a personal level, it was the writer Elias Canetti (1905-1994) a fellow émigré who exercised the most long lasting influence over her ar tistic output. The influence of all three men on Motesiczky is clearly apparent in the current group of works being offered, with the references to the ar tist’s relationship with Canetti being especially distinctive. Marie-Louise von Motesiczky grew up with her parents and her brother Karl on Brahmsplatz in central Vienna. Her mother Henriette came from 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, and she, her mother and her brother Karl spent their summers at Villa Todesco in Hinterbrühl, south west of the capital.
ABOVE : Elias Canetti at his desk, 1963 (Foto Archiv, Carl Hanser Verlag, Munich)
But over time family tragedy, financial difficulties and 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 high taxation, poor investments, and the financial crash of 1929. Then, with the rise of the Third Reich and the Anschluss in March 1938, when 11
Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Austria was annexed by Germany, she and her mother fled Vienna for the Netherlands before emigrating to England in 1939. Fur ther distress followed when her brother Karl, who had remained in Austria, was arrested and depor ted to Auschwitz, dying of typhus there on 25 June 1943. On Motesiczky’s arrival in London Kokoschka ensured her inclusion in a series of group exhibitions, and assisted her in the staging of a one-person show at the Czechoslovak Institute in the autumn of 1944. Fur ther group shows followed, and in 1960 she had a second solo exhibition at the influential Beaux Ar ts Galler y off Bond Street. On the Continent she received wide acclaim for her work in exhibitions in Amsterdam and The Hague in 1952, one of her canvases being purchased by the Stedelijk Museum. The same decade she exhibited in Munich and Düsseldorf, and in the 1960s was the subject of shows in Austria and Germany. In 1985, a full twenty-five years after her work had been shown at the Beaux Ar ts Galler y, she was the subject of another one-person exhibition in London, at the Goethe-Institut, which was widely acclaimed in the press. In 1994 a major retrospective of her work was held in Vienna at the Österreichische Galerie, Oberes Belvedere and in 12
Manchester at the City Ar t Galler y. In 2006-07 her work was celebrated in a centenar y exhibition at Tate Liverpool, travelling to Frankfur t, Vienna and Passau and Southampton City Ar t Galler y. Also in 2007 Jill Lloyd’s biography of Marie-Louise appeared: The Undiscovered Expressionist. A Life of Marie-Louise von Motesiczky, followed in 2009 by the catalogue raisonné of her paintings by Ines Schlenker itemising over 350 works. Most recently, in 2019-20, Tate Britain held an exhibition devoted to her to inaugurate the galler y named in perpetuity as the ‘Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Archive Galler y’ for all future displays of Tate’s archive holdings in general. The work of Marie-Louise von Motesiczky held in public collections Institutions in the UK holding works by the ar tist include: the Ben Uri Galler y and Museum, the British Museum, Burgh House, Hampstead, Freud Museum, Garden Museum, National Por trait Galler y and Tate in London (which also holds her archive); the Amersham Museum, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, New Walk Museum and Ar t Galler y, Leicester, Manchester Ar t Galler y, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh and the Hunterian Ar t Galler y, Glasgow. Elsewhere her work is in the National Galler y of Ireland, Dublin; the Stedelijk, Amsterdam; the Boijmans van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam; the Städel
Nine works from the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust
Museum, Frankfur t; the German Literar y Archive in Marbach; the Albertina, Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, the Leopold Museum and the Museum Wien in Vienna; the Lentos Kunstmuseum, Linz and the Stanley Museum, University of Iowa, USA. The Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust, is a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales (no. 7572024) and a registered charity (no. 1140890): www.motesiczky.org. The copyright for Marie-Louise von Motesiczky’s paintings, drawings and correspondence or other written work originating from her, her mother Henriette and brother Karl, lies with the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust.
Marie-Louise von Motesiczky, late 1920s (Motesiczky Archive) 13
Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Lot 3 ARR Property from the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust MARIE-LOUISE VON MOTESICZKY (AUSTRIAN 1906-1996) Feathers and Arrows oil on canvas 37.5 x 46.5 cm (14 3/4 x 18 1/4 in) Painted in 1953
LITERATURE: E. Freundlich, ‘”Trotz alledem ein guter Ort”. Die wiener Secession stellt Bilder von Marie-Louise Motesiczky aus’, in Mannheimer Morgen, 25 May 1966, n.p., titled Pfeile und Federn H. Spiel, ‘Die Malerin Marie-Louise Motesiczky. Einer Ausstellung’, in der Wiener Secession, 19 May 1966, n.p. I. Schlenker, Marie-Louise von Motesiczky 1906-1996, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, New York, 2009, p. 233, no. 120, illustrated
EXHIBITED: Munich, Städtische Galerie, Erna Dinklage, Marie-Louise Motesiczky, 1954, no. 125, illustrated in the catalogue Estimate: £1800-2500 Vienna, Wiener Secession; Linz, Neue Galerie der Stadt, Wolfgang Gurlitt Museum; Munich, Galerie Günter Franke; Bremen, Kunsthalle, Marie-Louise Motesiczky, 19661968, no. 32, illustrated in the catalogue London, Goethe-Institut, Marie-Louise von Motesiczky. Paintings Vienna 1925 - London 1985, 1985, no. 37, illustrated in the catalogue
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Nine works from the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust
Playful in subject matter and rich in colour, the present work of two apples on a piece of rough hewn wood, next to a Native American headress, with a bow behind, and a scattered array of arrows set before a window suggests the zestful energy that characterised Marie-Louise von Motesiczky's life at the time. As Schlenker notes, 1953 was a year of extended travels. 'During the summer, she went on holiday to the Tyrolean village of Judenstein with Elias Canetti and also visited Zurich,
Lucerne, Padua, Verona and Venice as well as the Attersee and Vienna. In December she spent the feast of St Nicholas with her relatives in The Hague and at the end of the month set off to the United States.' (Schlenker, p. 233). It was also the year that Motesiczky exhibited in the eccentrically titled The Rennaissance of the Fish. Paintings from the 17th to the 20th Centur y, at Roland Browse and Delbanco on Cork Street, suggesting her keen sense of the absurd.
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Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Lot 4 ARR Property from the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust MARIE-LOUISE VON MOTESICZKY (AUSTRIAN 1906-1996) Village in Tyrol signed Motesiczky (upper right) oil on canvas 71.1 x 97 cm (27 7/8 x 38 1/8 in) Painted in 1953 EXHIBITED: Munich, Städtische Galerie, Erna Dinklage, Marie-Louise Motesiczky, 1954, no. 116 London, Beaux Arts Galerie, Marie-Louise Motesiczky, 1960, no. 24, titled Village festival Vienna, Wiener Secession; Linz, Neue Galerie der Stadt, Wolfgang Gurlitt Museum; Munich, Galerie Günter Franke; Bremen, Kunsthalle, Marie-Louise Motesiczky, 1966-1968, no. 31
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LITERATURE: R. Vorderwülbecke, Marie-Louise von Motesiczky, on how to re-establish the stature of a late artist within the art market, MA thesis, Sotheby’s Institute, London, 1999, pp. 42 & 99, illustrated I. Schlenker, Marie-Louise von Motesiczky 1906-1996, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, New York, 2009, pp. 234-235, no. 121, illustrated Estimate: £5000-7000
Nine works from the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust
In the summer of 1952 Motesiczky stayed in a farm house in the alpine village of Judenstein in the Tyrol. She wrote enthusiastically to Elias Canetti at the time that it was: ‘indescribably beautiful... it is ver y wonderful here!’ She recounted that: ‘Yesterday, Sunday, there was a big festival here in Judenstein ... fancy-dress pageant led by Andreas Hofer on horseback, crazily decorated oxen, a wedding couple in a carriage, young and old, huntsmen and two wooden canons which fired formidably. A dance floor in the forest - one cheer y band and one dance band - but the people were happy and loved to dance...’ (Schlenker, p. 234).
Completed in early 1953 from the sketches and notes that Motesiczky had made on site, the present work celebrates the theme of ‘the crazily decorated oxen’ adorned with an elaborate head-dress of leaves and flowers. The animal is led by a cow girl spor ting a similarly fanciful bonnet made from branches, with a child in a red dress walking by her side. To the right of the composition appear two huntsmen in local costume. Motesiczky recorded in her diar y that the finished painting was shown in an exhibition at Roland Browse and Delbanco on Cork Street the same year. And that summer she returned to Judenstein in the Tyrol to share its pleasures with Elias Canetti. 17
Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Lot 5 ARR Proper ty from the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust MARIE-LOUISE VON MOTESICZKY (AUSTRIAN 1906-1996) Girl by the fire oil on canvas 55.5 x 81 cm (21 7/8 x 31 3/4 in) Painted in 1941 EXHIBITED: London, The Czechoslovak Institute, Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture by Marie Louise von Motesiczky and Mar y Duras, 1944, no. 39, titled Bonfire Vienna, Wiener Secession; Linz, Neue Galerie der Stadt, Wolfgang Gurlitt Museum; Munich, Galerie Günter Franke; Bremen, Kunsthalle, Marie-Louise Motesiczky, 1966-1968, no. 14 Liverpool, Tate, Marie-Louise von Motesiczky, 2006, no. 33, illustrated in the catalogue LITERATURE: G. Har t, ‘Heimkehr mit dem “Bild der Mutter”’, in Volksstimme, Vienna, 11 May 1966, n.p. L. Phillips, ‘Hidden in Hampstead. The life and work of Marie-Louise von Motesiczky’, in The Jewish Quarterly, vol. 48, no. 4, Winter 2001-2002, p. 31 I. Schlenker, ‘”But an émigré...not at all”. Marie-Louise von Motesiczky in England’, in Marie-Louise von Motesiczky 19061996, (exh. cat), Tate Liverpool; Museum Giersch, Frankfur t am Main; Wien Museum, Vienna; Southampton City Ar t
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Galler y, 2006, p. 136 I. Schlenker, Marie-Louise von Motesiczky 1906-1996, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, New York, 2009, p. 150, no. 52, illustrated £3000-5000
The present work shows Marie Hauptmann, a shoemaker’s daughter from Bohemia tending a bonfire in the garden of Cornerways, the proper ty the Motesiczky’s acquired on Chestnut Lane in Amersham in 1941. Marie had originally been taken on by the von Motesiczkys as wet nurse to Marie-Louise in Vienna, after she had been in ser vice with another family, and become pregnant by the son of the house. Marie subsequently became indispensable as Marie-Louise’s ‘second-mother’ and a vital suppor t to her actual mother Henriette. Although Marie spoke not a word of English she followed Henriette and Marie-Louise to England in 1939 (fig. 1), living wth them until she died in 1954 a the age of sixty-nine. Despite Marie being well into her 50s when the present work was painted, Motesiczky titled the composition Girl by the fire. By way of explanation, Schlenker notes: ‘Marie Hauptmann’s features are not defined clearly enough
Nine works from the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust
to be recognizable, but the solid figure, the working clothes and especially the brightly coloured headscarf, which the ar tist had enjoyed buying for her, identify her beyond doubt.’ (p. 150).
Fig. 1, Marie Hauptmann in the garden in Amersham, early 1940s (Motesiczky Archive)
Describing the individuality of the composition Schlenker obser ves: ‘The painting has a rough, sketchy, almost primitive and unfinished air which prompted one critic to compare Marie Hauptmann to ‘a Native American squaw’’ (ibid), and notes that Elias Canetti, who saw Marie as an integral par t of the painter’s life, recognised Marie’s totemic presence in this painting.
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Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Lot 6 ARR Property from the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust MARIE-LOUISE VON MOTESICZKY (AUSTRIAN 1906-1996) View from the window in Compayne Gardens I signed Motesiczky (lower right) oil on canvas 111 x 73.5 cm (43 3/4 x 28 7/8 in) Painted in 1952
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LITERATURE: I. Schlenker, Marie-Louise von Motesiczky 1906-1996, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, New York, 2009, p. 228, no. 116, illustrated Estimate: £5000-7000
Nine works from the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust
Fig.1 Front room of Motesiczky’s flat in Compayne Gardens, 1950s (Motesiczky Archive)
The ar tist lived in a flat at 14 Compayne Gardens, West Hampstead from 1948-1960. She shared the flat first with Georgette Lewinson, and then with Julia Altschulova. From 1951-1957 Elias Canetti kept a room there, where he often worked.
The present view is from the ar tist’s sitting room on the second floor, looking out through the large bay window to the houses on the other side of the road (fig. 1). The orange glow of the sky and lit windows suggest that the time is early evening. Displayed on a French commode in the foreground is the curious form of a stuffed pheasant and a vase of animated, albeit drooping white tulips.
Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Lot 7 ARR Property from the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust MARIE-LOUISE VON MOTESICZKY (AUSTRIAN 1906-1996) Fiesta signed with initials and dated M.M.67. (upper right) oil on canvas, unframed 75.7 x 65.2 cm (29 7/8 x 25 3/4 in) EXHIBITED: Munich, Galerie Günther Franke, Marie-Louise Motesiczky, 1967, no. 57 (ex-catalogue) LITERATURE: R. Vorderwülbecke, Marie-Louise von Motesiczky, on how to re-establish the stature of a late artist within the art market, MA thesis, Sotheby’s Institute, London, 1999, pp. 42 & 98, illustrated I. Schlenker, Marie-Louise von Motesiczky 1906-1996, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, New York, 2009, p. 358, no. 207, illustrated Estimate: £4000-6000
The present depiction of a larger than life androgynous dancer, surrounded by a rich cast of characters - young and old, small and large - is one of Motesiczky’s most ambitious compositions. Incorporating some twelve figures, it draws first and foremost on the ar tist’s memories of her trip to 22
Nine works from the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust
Spain the previous summer. But the flamboyant subject matter and Marie-Louise’s poetic license with propor tions clearly reflects her years in Germany, the formative influence of Max Beckmann on her ar t, and exposure to the Expressionism of such painters as George Grosz and Otto Dix. The juxtaposition of a uniformed marching dwarf brandishing a sabre, with a Madonna-like mother and child on the left, balanced with a huddled group of children cowering lower right, a figure brandishing a fork, and a musician apparently playing the harp beyond suggests that order has descended into chaos. As Schlenker comments, such a mix is ‘At odds with the apparently joyous occasion... Although it is difficult to interpret and make sense of the individual scenes, the inherent danger, subtle threat and indefinable sinister under tones of the painting are inexplicably palpable’ (Schlenker p. 358). The work was the culmination of two earlier essays on the theme (Schlenker nos. 208 & 209), and preparator y works on paper (e.g. Schlenker fig. 162). Schlenker notes that Motesiczky recorded her struggle to complete the work in her diar y: ‘Today I want to finish the picture of the Spanish dancer. Will it really work - as Pio [Elias Canetti] thinks?’ Schlenker added: ‘Despite the ar tist’s doubts, on completion, the painting was immediately included in her Munich exhibition that autumn.’
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Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Lot 8 ARR Proper ty from the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust MARIE-LOUISE VON MOTESICZKY (AUSTRIAN 1906-1996) In a Chinese restaurant oil on canvas, unframed 50.8 x 60.7 cm (20 x 23 7/8 in) Painted in the 1960s LITERATURE: I. Schlenker, Marie-Louise von Motesiczky 1906-1996, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, New York, 2009, p. 390, no. 225, illustrated £2000-3000
Neither the enigmatic nor the exotic is ever far from the surface of Marie-Louise von Motesiczky’s work, and the present work evokes both in a ver y literal way. The specific source of inspiration for the present scene is uncer tain, but this evening scene of four figures in a Chinese restaurant, two of whom are cer tainly Asian, seems to describe a par ticular moment in a fascinating meeting of Eastern and Western cultures.
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Nine works from the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust
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Marie-Louise von Motesiczky
Lot 9 ARR Property from the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust MARIE-LOUISE VON MOTESICZKY (AUSTRIAN 1906-1996) Still-life with cyclamen signed with initials and dated M.M.67. (upper right) oil on canvas, unframed 35.5 x 45.3 cm (14 x 17 7/8 in) EXHIBITED: Munich, Galerie Günter Franke, Marie-Louise Motesiczky, no. 53 (ex-catalogue)
Motesiczky’s still-lifes are typically intimate and invariably feature personal, self-referential themes. The present oil is a case in point. The effulgent blooms of the pink cyclamen in a vase on the left are balanced by two flickering candles that light up the darkness on the right, ver y possibly a reference to her longstanding and ever-fluctuating relationship with Elias Canetti. Motesiczky called Canetti both her ‘personal catastrophe’ but also acknowledged that he was also one of her ‘main gods’. As late as 1977 she wrote in her diar y: ‘completely without C. [Canetti] world makes no sense - with C endless torment’ (Schlenker p. 37). In the spirit of such ambivalent thoughts, it is no surprise that Schlenker suggests that the rat in the present work also references Canetti (ibid), an allusion that Motesiczky would make more over t in Nude with a Rat and Books of a few years later (Schlenker no. 246). The small view of a mountainous landscape propped up on the table, probably a postcard, refers back to Motesiczky’s Austrian roots, and her love of the Alps. To its right looms the sketchy form of a tribal car ving inspired by an African sculpture in her collection.
LITERATURE: I. Schlenker, Marie-Louise von Motesiczky 1906-1996, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, New York, 2009, p. 357, no. 206, illustrated Estimate: £2000-3000
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Marie-Louise von Motesiczky
Lot 10 ARR Property from the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust MARIE-LOUISE VON MOTESICZKY (AUSTRIAN 1906-1996) Two nude women and tent oil on canvas, unframed 53.4 x 71 cm (21 x 27 7/8 in)
Painted in the 1960s, the present work is one of a number of ‘double-por traits’ by Motesiczky that focused on the relationship between two women, often por trayed in a distinctly humorous manner. Other comparable works are Girlfriends, 1955 (Schlenker no. 138); Two Women Drinking Wine, 1960s (Schlenker no, 234, sold Chiswick Auctions 30 March 2021, lot 331) and Nudes at Hampstead Pond, 1988 (Schlenker no. 291, Collection of Burgh House, Hampstead). In the earlier paintings the ladies are clothed and chatting indoors, while in the present work they have shed their garments and converse outdoors, apparently by the sea where they have set up camp. Their modesty is protected by reeds on the left, and - rather comically - by the flaps of their tent on the right.
LITERATURE: I. Schlenker, Marie-Louise von Motesiczky 1906-1996, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, New York, 2009, p. 395, no. 232, illustrated Estimate £1,500-2,500
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Nine works from the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust
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Marie-Louise von Motesiczky thesis, Courtauld Insitute of Art, London, 2005, p. 32, illustrated J. Lloyd, The Undiscovered Expressionist. A Life of Marie-Louise von Motesiczky, Newhaven/ London, 2007, p. 219 I. Schlenker, Marie-Louise von Motesiczky 1906-1996, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, New York, 2009, p. 455, no. 276, illustrated Estimate: £800-1200 Lot 11 ARR Property from the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust MARIE-LOUISE VON MOTESICZKY (AUSTRIAN 1906-1996) Still-life with strawberries oil on canvas 24.2 x 34.1 cm (9 1/2 x 13 3/8 in) Painted in 1982 EXHIBITED: London, Goethe-Institut; Cambridge, The Fitzwilliam Museum, Marie-Louise von Motesiczky. Paintings Vienna 1925-London 1985, 1985-1986, no. 71, illustrated in the catalogue LITERATURE: E. Michel, Marie-Louise von Motesiczky 19061966. Eine Österreichische Schülerin von Max Beckmann, diploma thesis, University of Vienna, 2003, p. 55, illustrated E. López Catalayud, Marie-Louise von Motesiczky. Technique and Materials, diploma
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The success of the exhibition of Motesiczky’s work at the Goethe Institute in London in 1985, was followed by an exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. The present work was in both shows, and Professor Michael Jaffé, Director of the Fitzwilliam at the time, mentioned in a letter he wrote to Motesiczky how complimentar y the painter Derek Hill was of the work. ‘You may like to know that Derek Hill came this morning; and he shares my great admiration for your latest masterpiece in por traiture. He liked a number of other things, including a tall landscape which we were unable to include in the hang for lack of space in our Galler y. And he liked the small Still life with Strawberries 1982’ [the present work]. (quoted in Schlenker p. 455).
Nine works from the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust
Mané-Katz Lot 12 ARR Gifted to The Ben Uri Galler y and Museum to be sold for the benefit of the institution MANÉ-KATZ (FRENCH/UKRANIAN 1894–1962) Rabbi signed Mané-Katz (upper right); signed with initial and dated M56 (on the reverse) oil on board 46.2 x 38.2 cm (18 1/8 x 15 in) The funds realised will be reinvested in the Collection mirroring the focus of the Ben Uri Research Unit recording the Jewish and immigrant contribution to British visual culture since 1900. For fur ther information see www.benuri.org Estimate: £4000-6000
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Willy Eisenschitz Lot 16 ARR Property from a Private Collection WILLY EISENSCHITZ (AUSTRIAN 1889-1974) Canal St Martin, Paris signed Eisenschitz (lower right); signed, titled and dated Willy Eisenchitz Canal St Martin avec l’Hopital St Louis 1956 (on the artist’s label attached to the reverse) oil on canvas 73 x 60 cm (28 3/4 x 23 5/8 in) PROVENANCE: Acquired by the present owner circa 2000 The authenticity of this lot has been confirmed by Prof. Joseph Schütz, author of Willy Eisenschitz: Werkverzeichnis 1889-1974. Estimate: £5000-7000
Willy Eisenschitz was born into a wealthy Viennese bourgeois family. After attending the Academy of Fine Ar ts in Vienna, he moved to Paris in 1912 to study at the Academie de la Grande Chaumière. Whilst studying he met his future wife the French Expressionist ar tist Claire Ber trand and they went on to regularly exhibit with together. Throughout his life he was fascinated by Gauguin and Cezanne, and their influence can be seen in his colourful landscapes executed in Provence and Ibiza.
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Many of Eisenschitz’s views of Paris show the city’s poor, industrial areas, his own neighbourhood around the Rue de Tournon and the monuments at the Saint-Sulpice. The present work comes from a melancholic series of the Canal St Mar tin made by the ar tist in the late 1950s and early 1960s. A comparable work from this series can be found at The Metropolitan Museum, New York. Eisenschitz’s work is based on harmony and propor tion. In the present lot he carefully balances the soft pastel yellows of the outer buildings with the deep central red. He has skillfully created an atmospheric stormy sky with var ying tones of layered deep blue pigments which is reflected in the canal below. Two of the matchstick figures are painted in a bright and intense non-naturalistic orange, a reference to the ar tist’s earlier and more colourful works. During his lifetime Eisenschitz exhibited and par ticipated in notable exhibitions and galleries including the Salon des Indépendants (1922), Salon des Tuileries (1926), Salon d’Autmone (1928), Musée d’Ar t de Toulon (1957), Durand-Ruel and in the 1930s he was awarded the gold medal at the World Exhibition in Paris.
19th & 20th Centur y Paintings and Works on Paper
Pierre Adolphe Valette Lot 26 Proper ty from a Private Collection PIERRE ADOLPHE VALETTE (FRENCH 1876-1942) Vineyard hoer oil on canvas 33.2 x 41.9 cm (13 1/8 x 16 1/2 in) PROVENANCE: Tib Lane Galler y, Manchester Sale, Capes Dunn & Co., Manchester, 7 October 2014, lot 227 EXHIBITED: Manchester, The Lowr y, Adolphe Valette A Pioneer of Impressionism in Manchester, October 2011-Januar y 2012 Estimate: £4000-6000
Pierre Adolphe Valette was a French Impressionist painter. Between 1906 and 1920 Valette taught at the Manchester School of Ar t, during which time he produced his most acclaimed works: a series of Impressionist views of the city that are now in the collection of the Manchester Ar t Galler y. Valette is remembered for his key role as L.S.Lowr y’s tutor. Lowr y held great admiration for Valette who showed him the potential of the urban landscape as a subject. Vineyard hoer was painted in the period after Valette returned to France in 1928. During these years in France Valette painted rural and pastoral subjects in pastel colours with loose Impressionistic brushstrokes. 36
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L.S. Lowry recalled of Valette that he was ‘a real teacher … a dedicated teacher’... ‘I cannot over-estimate the effect on me of the coming into this drab city of Adolphe Valette, full of French Impressionists, aware of everything that was going on in Paris’.
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Charles Dufresne Lot 28 Proper ty from a UK Private Collector CHARLES DUFRESNE (FRENCH 1876-1938) Vase de fleurs signed dufresne (lower right) oil on canvas 99.6 x 81 cm (39 1/4 x 31 7/8 in) Executed circa 1923 PROVENANCE: Acquired by the present owner circa 2000 Thomas Dufresne, grand-son of the ar tist, has confirmed the authenticity of this work. Estimate: £3000-5000
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19th & 20th Centur y Paintings and Works on Paper
Juan Antonio Gonzales Lot 56 Proper ty from a Private Collection JUAN ANTONIO GONZALES (SPANISH 1842-1914) The return from the baptism signed and dated Juan Antonio Gonzales.1876 (lower left) oil on canvas 130.2 x 84.8 cm (51 1/4 x 33 3/8 in) Estimate: £8000-12000
The scene of figures in their finer y lining up to compliment the new mother and admire the newborn afforded Gonzales the oppor tunity to poke fun at the mincing rituals and vacuous niceties of the bourgeoisie with a dr y wit, and by presenting them in the silks and satins of the eighteenth centur y to indulge his talent for painting richly textured and finely coloured fabrics. The entrenched social hierarchy that the painting captures reads like a book. On the left the young mother in white is congratulated by the first elegant gentleman, while on the far right at the rear if the queue is the curé in solemn robes of black; 40
behind him two footmen prepare the table for lunch. In the centre of the group a third leading gentlemen wearing a tailcoat of gold silk looks down imperiously at the baby held by the nurse as he nochalantly flicks back his tails to Visit www.chiswickauctions.co.uk
reveal its deep viridian lining to the viewer ; around him the ladies fuss, gossip and flir t. To underline this parade of vanities, behind the figures Gonzales hangs a huge mirror.
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Pierre Olivier Joseph Coomans Lot 68 Proper ty from a Private Collection PIERRE OLIVIER JOSEPH COOMANS (BELGIAN 1916-1889)* Artemis and Cupid oil on canvas 61.7 x 51.1 cm (24 3/8 x 20 1/8 in) Painted in 1883 PROVENANCE: Acquired by the father of the present owner in the 1990s Estimate: £6000-8000 * indicates that this Lot has been impor ted under Temporar y Admission.
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Simeon Solomon Lot 60 Property of a Gentleman SIMEON SOLOMON (BRITISH 1840-1905) Erinna of Lesbos signed with initials and dated 1886 (lower right); inscribed ERINNA OF LESBOS (lower centre, in a cartouche) sanguine chalk 16.6 x 13 cm (6 1/2 x 5 1/8 in) PROVENANCE: Sale, Sotheby’s, London, 21 September 1988, lot 411 Peter Nahum, London Private collection Sale, Christie’s, London, 16 June 2015, lot 30 Purchased at the above sale by the present owner Estimate: £6000-8000
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Executed in 1886, Erinna of Lesbos closely relates to a pencil drawing executed by Solomon in 1862 of the profile of Sappho, in the collection of Tate Britain. Erinna is the subject of the drawing which demonstrates the impor tance she held for Solomon. She is crowned with laurel and is drawn with soft shading, emphasising her seductive femininity. Solomon shared a Pre-Raphaelite interest in Greek and Roman mythology and the present lot relates to a series made by the ar tist in the 1860s of depictions of the classical poet Sappho and her lover Erinna. Included in this series is Solomon’s celebrated Sappho and Erinna in a Garden at Mytilene, 1864, Tate Britain, regarded as one of the most significant Victorian pictures of same-sex desire. Solomon was greatly influenced by the poet Algernon Charles Swinburne, who was influenced by Sappho’s poetr y. This led Solomon to explore subjects that were forbidden at the time such as homosexuality and lesbianism. However, in 1873 when Solomon was in his mid-thir ties and at the peak of his career he was arrested for homosexual conduct which was illegal at the time. Solomon was sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment and sadly his career never recovered. Interestingly, Solomon never stopped working and continued to work on paper, his works often becoming suffused with melancholia, as in the present lot.
19th & 20th Centur y Paintings and Works on Paper
Dorothea Sharp ROI RBA Lot 62 ARR Property from a London Private Collection DOROTHEA SHARP ROI RBA (BRITISH 1874-1955) In the lily garden oil on canvas 48.5 x 43.3 cm (19 1/8 x 17 in) Painted circa 1901 Estimate: £3000-5000
The present lot is a study for the larger canvas In the Lily garden-on the sand dunes (1901) (sold at Sotheby's, London in 13 July 2010 for £32,450 including premium.) 'I think the chief attraction of Miss Sharp's delightful pictures are her happy choice of subjects, and her beautiful colour schemes. Rollicking children bathed in strong sunlight, playing in delightful surroundings, her subjects appeal because they are based on the joy of life. And she presents them equally happily, with a powerful technique which enables her to make the most of her wonderful sense of colour.' (Harold Sawkins, The Artist, April 1935).
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Edward Seago Lot 97 ARR EDWARD SEAGO (BRITISH 1910-1974) The Centaur and Spinaway at Pin Mill signed Edward Seago (lower left); inscribed THE ‘CENTAUR’ AND ‘SPINAWAY’ AT PIN MILL (on the reverse) oil on board 45 x 65 cm (16 x 25 5/8 in) PROVENANCE: Marlborough Fine Art, London Richard Green, London
Estimate: £6000-8000
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