Marie-Louise von Motesiczky was an Austrian painter. Born into a distinguished and cultured family in Vienna, she left school at only 13 and attended art classes across Europe. Invited to join Max Beckmann’s master class in Frankfurt, his influence on her work can be seen in her early portraiture and still-lifes.

An expressive painter , she created self-portraits over a period of about 66 years which are an outstanding record of self-observation. She was impelled to leave Austria with her mother because of her Jewish heritage when Hitler marched into Vienna on 12 March 1938. She settled in England with her mother and in 1960 moved into Chesterford Gardens. After her move her time was increasingly dominated by the demands of caring for her mother which prompted many aspetcts of her most remarkable work: a series of unflinching portraits of her mother, expressive of the ravages of age but also the deep emotional bond between them.