Property from the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust

MARIE-LOUISE VON MOTESICZKY (AUSTRIAN 1906-1996)
Two women drinking wine
oil on canvas
63.3 x 76 cm (24 7/8 x 29 7/8 in)

LITERATURE:
I. Schlenker, Marie-Louise von Motesiczky 1906-1996, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, New York, 2009, p. 398, no. 234, illustrated

Dating from the 1960s this 'double portrait' was one of many that Marie-Louise painted throughout her life, often focusing on the relationship between two women. In the present composition, clearly designed to raise a smile, the artist accentuates the differences in the two women - one tall, one short; one flowing blond, one close-cropped brunette; one powdered with red lipstick and earrings, one unmade up and unadorned - and positions them in an almost painfully constricted space, trapped in conversation behind a table upon which the absurdly over-sized leaves of of a wilting rhododendron branch in a brown jug crowd out the women as they raise a glass.

See introduction to lot 328.