Circus Scene

This dramatically lit, complex and arresting composition was inspired by a circus performance attended by the artist and is loosely based on three photographs taken at the time (now in the Motesiczky Archive at Tate). During her years in England, the influence of Motesiczky’s early mentor Max Beckmann gave way to that of Oskar Kokoschka, apparent in the looser, freer brushwork and softer, less angular figures. The curve of the ring is echoed in the sweeping overhead gesture of the woman’s large feather fan, while the horses are posed in various performing attitudes. Compressed into and framed by the rectangular format, the scene is also reminiscent of one of the artist’s carefully composed still-lifes.