Alfred Maurer
Still Life, c. 1908-10
Oil on canvas
18 x 21⅝ inches
45.7 x 54.9 cm
45.7 x 54.9 cm
Signed at lower right: A.H. Maurer
Alfred Maurer's Still Life is a testament to his Fauvist experimentation, showcasing his ability to manipulate color and form. Maurer's vibrant still life captures the corner of a room adorned...
Alfred Maurer's Still Life is a testament to his Fauvist experimentation, showcasing his ability to manipulate color and form. Maurer's vibrant still life captures the corner of a room adorned with orange and blue floral wallpaper—a signature Fauvist approach employing complementary colors to create a high-key color effect. The upward-tilting table displays two yellow pieces of fruit and two blue and white ceramic pieces—a plate and a candlestick holder—reminiscent of the Chinoiserie aesthetics that pervaded France at the time. Completed during the period the artist lived and worked in France, Maurer's use of non-naturalistic colors and spontaneous brushwork draws inspiration from the works of Henri Matisse (1869-1954) while the upward-tiling table is a favored device of Paul Cézanne (1839-1906). This painting also hints at his artistic evolution, foreshadowing the fragmented and abstract Cubist compositions that characterize his work in the subsequent decade. A companion picture, Still Life (c. 1909-1910), showing an analogous combination of floral wallpaper and table dressing, is currently in the collection of The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Provenance
The artist;
Ellen and Chris Huntington, Maine;
[Barridoff Gallery, South Portland, Maine]; to
Jon and Barbara Landau, New York; to
Tommy LiPuma, New York; to
Estate of the above, 2017
Exhibitions
(Probably) Folsom Galleries, New York, Post-Impressionist Paintings: Alfred H. Maurer January 15–29, 1913Portland Museum of Art, Maine, The Ellen and Chris Huntington Collection, April 2–May 2, 1977
Hollis Taggart Galleries, New York, Alfred H. Maurer, Aestheticism to Modernism, November 30, 1999-January 15, 2000
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio, Modern American Masters: Highlights from the Gill and Tommy LiPuma Collection, March 28-July 18, 2004, as Still Life, circa 1910
Charles Demuth Museum, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Modernist Expressions, October 2-November 28, 2004
Hollis Taggart Galleries, New York, Alfred H. Maurer: Fauve in Focus, November 29-December 16, 2006, illus. in colorAddison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts; and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, Alfred H. Maurer: At the Vanguard of Modernism, 2015-2016, dated c. 1910
Literature
Stephen May, "Alfred Maurer: At the Vanguard of Modernism," Antiques and The Arts Weekly, June 19, 2015, illus. on coverJeff Richman, "Alfred Maurer: At the Vanguard of Modernism," Green-Wood Cemetery, July 7, 2015, illus. in color
Stacey Epstein, Alfred H. Maurer: At the Vanguard of Modernism, Andover: Addison Gallery of American Art and Yale University Press, 2015, illus. in color on frontispiece (detail), p. 114, illus. in color
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