In 1938 Motesiczky and her mother fled Vienna, settling in England the following year. The sitter here, Maria Seidler, was the proprietor of their London accommodation. She was an opera singer who had also emigrated from Vienna. Motesiczky was reluctant to exhibit her work and rarely even discussed it. The artist was only ‘rediscovered’ in the 1980s – when she was living quietly in Hampstead, in a big house packed with her paintings. Since then, her work has been shown around the world.