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Self-portrait in Green Selbstporträt in Grün 1942 Oil on canvas, 406 × 304 mm Signed (bottom right): Motesiczky Mirli and Daniele Grassi, Belgium
In 1942, Motesiczky and her mother were living in the relative security of rural Amersham, having escaped the London Blitz. The artist’s long affair with the writer Elias Canetti was in its first, intense phase. This self-portrait, in which the artist seems to take a close, investigative look at herself in these new circumstances, is particularly striking for two reasons. First, her head fills the entire canvas. There are no distractions from the face, such as a hat with which the artist often covered her hair. Second, Motesiczky’s exciting and effusive use of the colour green, for her hair, her face and her clothes, creates a daring and unusual image, emphasized by the contrasting red highlights on the eyelids and the slightly open mouth. Several critics have remarked on the artist’s ‘enormous questioning eyes’,1 yet seem unable to decide whether they express sadness, amazement or alarm. The ultimate accolade for this self-portrait came from a critic in 1966, who praised it as one of Motesiczky’s ‘perfect paintings’.2 Self-portrait in Green was exhibited at the Czechoslovak Institute in autumn 1944. Oskar Kokoschka, a friend of the Motesiczky family from the Vienna days, approached the director of the Tate Gallery, John Rothenstein, enquiring if a painting from the exhibition might be accepted by the museum. Unfortunately, the offer was ultimately declined, despite the fact that John Rothenstein had included Self-portrait in Green on his list of works to be considered for acquisition.3
notes 1 ‘riesigen fragenden Augen’: Baldaß 1955, p. 219. 2 ‘vollkommene Bilder’: Tassié 1966. 3 John Rothenstein to Oskar Kokoschka, 16 October 1944: Motesiczky archive. provenance Artist; Nell Clegg (gift 1940s); artist (probably not returned after 1966 exhibitions); Gretl Rupé (purchased at 1967 exhibition); Mirli and Daniele Grassi (inherited 2000). exhibitions London 1944b, no. 38; Munich 1954, no. 115, shown as Selbstporträt; London 1960, no. 7, shown as Self-portrait, 1943; Vienna 1966, no. 17; Linz 1966, no. 17; Munich 1967, no. 17; Bremen 1968, no. 17; Vienna 1994, no. 21, illus. (col.); Liverpool
2006, no. 35, illus. p. 141 (col.); Frankfurt am Main 2006, no. 35, illus. p. 141 (col.); Vienna 2007, no. 35, illus. p. 141 (col.); Passau 2007, no. 35, illus. p. 141 (col.); Southampton 2007, no. 35, illus. p. 141 (col.). bibliography Yapou 1944, p. 319; Baldaß 1955, p. 219; Hodin 1960, illus. p. 7 (Self portrait, 1943); Reifenberg 1966a, n.p.; Tassié 1966, n.p.; Dr. S. 1968, n.p.; Marie-Louise von Motesiczky, exh. cat. 1985, illus. p. 58; Koch 1994, p. 100; Kruntorad 1994, n.p.; PlakolmForsthuber 1994, p. 168 (Selbstbildnis in Grün); Schmidt 1994a, p. 7; Neuerwerbungen, exh. cat. 1999, p. 104; Michel 2003, pp. 59, 70, illus. Abb. 83 (col.); Crüwell 2006b, n.p.; R. Gries 2006, n.p.; Marie-Louise von Motesiczky, exh. booklet 2006, n.p.; Vinzent 2006, p. 159, illus. p. 381; Lloyd 2007, p. 115.
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