\nMARIE-LOUISE IN AMERSHAM
\nMarie-Louise von Motesiczky Gallery<\/strong><\/p>\n
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In 1940, Vienna-born artist Marie-Louise von Motesiczky (1906-1996) moved to Amersham, with her mother Henriette and their housekeeper Marie Hauptmann. Fleeing persecution in Austria, initially via Amsterdam and London, they settled in Buckinghamshire. She spent time with other \u00e9migr\u00e9s living in Amersham, including the future Nobel prize-winning author Elias Canetti (1905-94), and the composer, pianist and teacher Francesco Ticciati (1893-1949).<\/p>\n
Starting with her six paintings in the Amersham Museum\u2019s collection, explore Marie-Louise\u2019s time in Amersham, her direct community on Chestnut Lane and fellow \u00e9migr\u00e9s who visited her there during (and directly after) the Second World War. Amersham was a refuge for many during the War, and Marie-Louise would have encountered others who had settled there temporarily. Beyond her own circle of friends, she would have witnessed evacuee children sent to Amersham to live with local families, a community of Jewish people, mostly from London, and people displaced from the capital and other cities. She would have seen the Home Guard on manoeuvres, and witnessed soldiers based throughout the town, in transit before missions elsewhere. There was a wider official presence too, with elite naval officers training in old Amersham, scientists establishing a research centre in Little Chalfont and German prisoners of war helping MI5 and MI6 at Latimer House. The exhibition features examples of Marie-Louise\u2019s work in the original and reproduction, that captured some of this wartime community.<\/p>\n
The exhibition has a specific focus on the road Marie-Louise lived on, Chestnut Lane, on the border between Amersham and the village of Chesham Bois. In the 1940s the road was unmade, without street lights and featured a mix of large and small houses, a pub and a local shop. At the end of the road there was (and still is) a local farm surrounded by rolling hills. The exhibition features some of the people who lived on the road, their jobs and work to support the war effort, in order to imagine who Marie-Louise saw and knew, and to better understand the town\u2019s wartime community.<\/p>\n
The exhibition also includes works created through Amersham Museum’s community learning programme. Through four artist-led workshops, families from the South Bucks Jewish Community have learned about Marie-Louise and her portraiture, and created their own self-portraits for display. The Museum has also worked with 180 children from Chestnut Lane Infant School, which is located directly opposite Cornerways, the house Marie-Louise lived in. Artwork created by the Year 2 children about the people and events that took place on Chestnut Lane in the 1940s features in an illustrated map and trail.<\/p>\n\t