Alfred Maurer

An American painter and graphic of German origin.

Alfred was born into the family of lithographer and realist artist Louis Maurer, an emigrant from Germany.

Maurer’s paintings were repeatedly praised in the world: the Salmagundi Club Prize (1900), the first prize at the Carnegie International Show (1901), the bronze medal at the Pan-American Exhibition in Buffalo, the Medal of the Exhibition in Liege (Belgium), the Gold Medal at the International Exhibition in Munich (1905). The New York Society of Independent Artists elected Maurer as its director in 1919. Today it is difficult to see A.H. Maurer’s works in a museum or at an exhibition, as most of them are in private collections.

Key Ideas:

– Alfred Maurer officially began his career in 1901 from fashionable portraits, depicting, among other things, his teacher Chase. These works were recognized on both sides of the Atlantic. Simultaneously, the aspiring master depicted exciting genre scenes reflecting the pulse of modern life in Parisian cafes, dance halls and along the shore.

– In his paintings with impressionistic subjects, the artist at first did not abandon the almost traditional perspective and adhered to the dark palette, as seen in the work “Carousel” (1902, Brooklyn Museum). After a while, the colors become brighter, the smears become much smaller, and “The Girl in the Garden” (1907, Hempstead, New York) can already be attributed either to classical Impressionism or even to divisionism (Neo-impressionism).

– By 1906, Henry moved his artistic view to the aesthetics of Fauvism and began to create stunning paintings, made with an expressive and daring brushstroke, filled with intensely saturated bright colors. Demonstrating his picturesque landscapes, portraits and still lifes at important international exhibitions, including those held at the Paris Salon, the American painter quite fell into the context of other “Fauvi” – leading French artists.

– In the last years, most of the works of Maurer became decidedly expressionistic, and then Cubist. Figurative distortions acquired a vivid character, since the formal and emotional elements of Maurer’s art were combined with the intensity of color solutions and sharp contrasts. He turned to the depiction of elongated (modeled after Modigliani) figures, mostly women.

– Art historians rightly believe that the paintings of his last period reflect personal anguish, those alarmingly-heavy waves of depression that eventually resulted in the tragic suicide of the 64-year-old artist in 1932.