Portrait of a Russian Student
- Artist: Marie-Louise Von Motesiczky
- Date: 1927
- Medium: Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions: support: 825 x 540 mm
- Museum: Tate Britain
- Collection record: Tate Britain website
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About this artwork
This is the “Portrait of a Russian Student” by Marie‑Louise von Motesiczky, painted in 1927 as an oil on canvas measuring about 825 × 540 mm. The sitter—a young man with blond hair—seats himself in a modest interior, his hands raised as if in nervous gesticulation. His face carries an uneasy, serious expression, and the artist sharpens his angular features with clean contours that cut through the muted palette.
The background is a study in contrasts: green and pink patterned wallpaper behind him, a pink curtain at the right, all rendered in the restrained hues typical of the Neue Sachlichkeit movement. Motesiczky, working in Paris while studying at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, adopts the movement’s focus on modern reality and the psychological tension of everyday life. The sitter’s identity is unknown; the artist may have met him through her brother’s connections with Russian scholars.
The painting captures a moment of quiet anxiety, the raised hands emphasising a sense of apprehension that the muted colors and angular lines amplify. It is a striking example of how von Motesiczky’s early work engaged with the hard edges of contemporary European art.
See it in person
Portrait of a Russian Student is in the collection of Tate Britain on Millbank, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
