Among the first Americans to espouse novel European modernist approaches to painting, Alfred Maurer was directly informed by his exposure to avant-garde circles in Paris. Maurer developed a strong friendship with fellow American artist Arthur Dove over many years, having first met in Paris in 1907 and continuing their friendship after Maurer resettled in America. By the time Abstraction, 1919 was painted, Dove had helped shape Maurer’s aesthetic approach, encouraging him to take up pure abstraction. In addition to Dove, Maurer shared an affinity with other artists in the Stieglitz circle— specifically Georgia O’Keeffe and John Marin—who focused on the rhythms of nature through their own intuitive response as opposed to the prevailing American voice at the time based on industry and progress. These geometric abstractions from 1919 through the 1920s are significant in anticipating Maurer’s later Cubist experimentations.