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308:, he was a quiet-mannered man, whom I took to be about seventy-five years old. Later I learned that he was then already ninety-five ... Speaking of his son, Alfred, he evidently could not sympathize with—or, as he said, understand—the ultra-violets and ultra-blues of that phase of Alfred's work. He seemed so proud of what his son had done, but so grieved at what he was then doing. For some reason, Alfred was subsequently forced to return to New York, leaving behind in Paris his beloved boulevards and the friends of his heart. The idea and the style of his work seemed to change; he turned to the painting of elongated women, after the pattern of
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312:. Then Louis Maurer, seemingly outraged by his son's work, did an extraordinary thing. He gave an exhibition of his own paintings at the age of one hundred years, a record for all time. Between this unique rejuvenescence of his remarkable father, with the implied reproof against his own art, and the suffering due to ill health, the pit yawned and the unhappy Alfred Maurer left the scene of his sorrows a suicide, his gallant heart broken.
328:. Instead, he became a citizen of a country with very limited interest in bold artistic experimentation and took his place as part of that "tragic fraternity of artists who during their lifetimes have suffered the tortures of neglect." He enjoys a marginal status in most American art history textbooks. It is also extremely difficult to encounter Maurer's paintings in public collections as most of his work is still privately owned.
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Alfred Maurer, whom I knew casually, had a pleasant personality. After his early talent had brought him a prize at the
Carnegie Institute, he went to Paris, where he stayed for years ... There was no doubt that he was happy in his Parisian atmosphere. Like many other young Americans there, he was
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About his approach to painting after abandoning realism, Maurer commented, "My main concern in painting is the beautiful arrangement of color values -- that is, harmonized masses of pigment, more or less pure. For this reason, it is impossible to present an exact transcription of nature....It is
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necessary for art to differ from nature....Perhaps art should be an intensification of nature; at least it should express an inherent feeling which cannot be obtained from nature except through a process of association....The artist must be free to paint his effects. Nature must not bind him."
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Leaving Paris on the eve of World War I, he returned to his father's house only to be denied support. It was the beginning, as art critic Robert Hughes wrote, of "a banishment to a hell of
Oedipal conflict." For the next seventeen, increasingly depressed years, Maurer painted in a garret in his
343:, reviewing a show of his work at the Hudson Walker Gallery in New York, wrote: "He lived exclusively for his art and in sharp contrast to most painters of today who never lift a paint brush to canvas without thought of the box office results....he had the courage of his principles."
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too limited, he spent most of his time copying in the Louvre. His self-portrait from that time expresses the 'youthful optimism" of that period of his life. At the time, Maurer worked in a conventional but self-assured realist style.
197:. It was an honor that promised a bright future, and Maurer hoped it would convince his demanding and skeptical father that he could, in fact, paint. Other awards received by Maurer included the Inness Jr. Prize of the
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Yet, at age thirty-six, in Paris, deviating from what everyone (including himself, at times) called "acceptable" painting styles, Maurer changed his methods sharply and from that point on painted only in a
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bought the contents of Maurer's studio and represented the artist for the remainder of his career. The death of his mother in 1917, however, intensified his gradual withdrawal from the world.
153:, a lithographer with a pronounced disdain for modern art. At age sixteen, Maurer had to quit school to work at his father's lithographic firm. In 1897, after studying with the sculptor
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in its color sense and fluid handling of paint, made his reputation in the
American art world. Comparisons were made to Chase and Sargent. The painting received first prize at the 1901
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during the early twentieth century. Highly respected today, his work met with little critical or commercial success in his lifetime, and he died, a suicide, at the age of sixty-four.
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As the art historian
Sheldon Reich observed, had Maurer been a European or remained in Europe in 1914, he would probably be discussed today in the same terms applied to
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attracted by the life of the boulevards, the cares, the daily affinity with brother artists with whom he was then studying the problem of color ... His father,
273:" in 1916, a New York show which featured seventeen of the most significant native modernists of the time. He also exhibited regularly at the New York-based
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Anne
Harrell, "The Forum Exhibition: Selections and Additions" (Whitney Museum of American Art, exhibition catalogue, May 81-June 22, 1983), p. 25.
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of 1913. He acquired esteem in avant-garde circles. He did not, however, find the popular following he needed to make a living.
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father's house on the West Side of
Manhattan and gained only limited critical acclaim. He was friends with respected
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Maurer took his own life by hanging several weeks after his father's death at the age of 100. He was interred at
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in
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exhibition catalogue, Washington D.C.: National
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Biographical information for this entry is taken from
Elizabeth McCausland,
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lithographs. When I met him at an exhibition of the
Independents at the
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and was elected their director in 1919. In 1924, the New York dealer
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614:, New York (November 30, 1999 - January 15, 2000). ASIN B0006RBPVA.
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Maurer was born in New York City. He was the son of German-born
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American Painting from the Armory Show to the Depression.
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Alfred Henry Maurer Biography: Hollis Taggart Galleries
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The Flow of Art: Essays and Criticisms of Henry McBride
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Loughery, John. "The Watercolors of Alfred Maurer."
483:(New York: American Artists Group, 1940), pp. 106-107.
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Maurer's works are included in the collections of the
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manner. His break from realism and new commitment to
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American Visions: The Epic History of Art in America.
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and a gold medal at the International Exposition in
674:Lecture on Maurer's evolution by Stacey B. Epstein
603:Minneapolis; University of Minnesota Press, 2003.
560:(New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1983), p. 321.
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390:, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis; and the
300:, was an old-time artist, who had worked on the
271:The Forum Exhibition of Modern American Painters
209:in 1901. In 1905, he won the third medal at the
86:(April 21, 1868 – August 4, 1932) was an
288:wrote poignantly of him in his autobiography,
594:Early American Modernist Painting, 1910-1935.
589:Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1955.
608:Alfred H. Maurer: Aestheticism to Modernism
522:"Artist, Death by Suicide," August 5, 1932.
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601:Alfred Maurer: The First American Modern.
573:(New York: Atheneum, 1975), pp. 352-353.
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739:Suicides by hanging in New York (state)
629:Modern American Painting and Sculpture.
409:Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession
241:in New York City at Alfred Stieglitz's
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364:Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
533:"Hundreds at Rites for Alfred Maurer"
382:, Winston-Salem, North Carolina; the
380:Reynolda House Museum of American Art
144:Reynolda House Museum of American Art
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744:20th-century American male artists
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638:(Summer 1985), pp. 124–125.
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217:. A successful future beckoned.
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558:Stieglitz: A Memoir/Biography
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366:, Bentonville, Arkansas; the
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93:. He exhibited his work in
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642:Alfred Maurer (1868-1932),
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569:Daniel Catton Rich (ed.),
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211:Liege (Belgium) Exposition
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612:Hollis Taggart Galleries
539:. 1932-08-08. p. 20
386:, Washington, D.C.; the
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105:Early life and education
596:New York: DaCapo, 1994.
468:A.H. Maurer (1968-1932)
203:Pan-American Exposition
704:American male painters
621:New York: Knopf, 1997.
592:Davidson, Abraham A.
466:Elizabeth McCausland,
439:(New York: Wyn, 1951).
356:Carnegie Museum of Art
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606:Epstein, Stacey. "
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481:Artist in Manhattan
376:Phillips Collection
333:Green-Wood Cemetery
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667:2017-11-15 at the
404:American modernism
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448:Loughery, p. 121.
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337:An American Place
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65:(1932-08-04)
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689:1868 births
625:Hunter, Sam
537:Times Union
437:A.H. Maurer
284:The artist
259:Arthur Dove
255:avant-garde
247:Armory Show
243:291 gallery
95:avant-garde
683:Categories
543:2024-01-15
415:References
310:Modigliani
267:John Marin
239:John Marin
47:1868-04-21
235:Leo Stein
231:modernism
177:Maurer's
665:Archived
398:See also
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183:Whistler
114:Carousel
76:Painting
580:Sources
227:fauvist
91:painter
326:Derain
265:, and
223:cubist
215:Munich
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