The Undiscovered Expressionist: A Life of Marie-Louise von Motesiczky

New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2007. Hardcover. VG. Red-orange cloth, gray & color illus. dust jacket, 288 pp., color & BW illus. Considers the life and work of Viennese artist Marie-Louise von Motesiczky (1906-1996). "Drawing on a wealth of unpublished family archives, including decades of correspondence between Marie-Louise and the writer Elias Canetti, the book tells the story of Motesiczky's life -- her childhood in Venice amidst an array of talented and distinguished family members; her life-long friendship with Max Beckmann; her studies in Vienna, The Hague, Paris and Frankfurt; her flight with her mother when the Nazis marched on Vienna in 1938; and her many years living and working among other exiled artists in England. The book offers also a senstive critical study of Marie-Louise's paintings, discussing particular works and the circumstances that surrounded their creation. These including compelling self-portraits, a moving series of paintings of the artist's aging mother and lyrical depictions of her English garden that represent the high points of the artist's archievement." (dj).