Marie-Louise von Motesiczky’s Still Life with Flowers, oil on canvas, hammered down for £3500 at Olympia Auctions on March 20.
A still-life with flowers that made five times its upper estimate led a group of works by Marie-Louise von Motesiczky (1906-96) at Olympia Auctions just weeks after a new exhibition on the artist opened in Amersham.
Twenty-eight lots by the Austrian-born artist went under the hammer at the London auction house’s From the Studio: Works from 15 Artists’ Estates sale on March 20. Though most of those that got away sold for less than £1000, several tipped over into the four figures, with particular interest in her still-life oils.
Still Life, Yellow Rose, oil and pencil on board, 1976, £1200 at Olympia Auctions.
It is one of two sales the auction house plans on the artist this year, the second taking place in October.
The pictures were consigned by the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust, which has also recently worked with Amersham Museum on the creation of a temporary exhibition space to showcase works by artists and crafts people from the museum’s collection and on loan. The new gallery has been named for the artist.
Dorothy, Marie-Louise von Motesiczky, 1945, oil on canvas, Amersham Museum
The inaugural exhibition, Marie-Louise in Amersham focuses on the artist’s first experience of settling in Britain after leaving Vienna with her mother after the Anschluss in 1938. At the heart of the show are six pictures donated to the museum by the trust.
