Alfred Henry Maurer

Infobox Artist
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name = Alfred Henry Maurer


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caption = "An Arrangement", 1901, oil on cardboard
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birthdate = birth date |1868|4|21|
location = New York City
deathdate = death date and age |1932|8|4|1868|4|21|
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nationality = American
field = Painting
training =
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works =
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Alfred Henry Maurer (April 21, 1868 – August 4, 1932) was an American modernist painter. He exhibited his work in avant-garde circles internationally and in New York City during the early 20th century.

Biography

Maurer was born in New York City. He was the son of German-born Louis Maurer, a lithographer. At age sixteen, Maurer quit school to work at his father's lithographic firm. In 1897, after studying with the sculptor John Quincy Adams Ward and painter William Merritt Chase, Maurer left for Paris where he stayed the next four years, joining a circle of American and French artists. At the time, Maurer's style was realist.

His painting "An Arrangement," received first prize at the 1901 Carnegie International Exhibition. Other awards received by Maurer included the Inness Jr. prize of the Salmagundi Club in 1900 and a bronze medal at the Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo, New York in 1901. In 1905 he won the third medal at the Liege (Belgium) Exposition and a gold medal at the International Exposition in Munich.

Briefly returning to New York, determined to show his skeptical father that he could paint, Maurer painted what arguably is his most famous painting "An Arrangement," using a woman next door as a model and completing the work (on a borrowed piece of cardboard) in a matter of mere hours. At age thirty-six, in Paris, deviating from what everyone (including himself) called "acceptable" painting styles, Maurer changed his methods sharply and from that point on painted only in the cubist and fauvist manner, subsequently risking his international reputation. An important early American avant-garde painter in 1909 he had a two-man exhibition with John Marin in New York City at the 291 gallery. Four of his paintings were included in the Armory Show of 1913.

Leaving Paris shortly before World War I, he returned to his father's house only to be denied support. For the next seventeen years Maurer painted in a garret in his father's house and was able to gain no critical acclaim. An American modernist he was friends with many important avant-garde American artists like Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, John Marin and others during the early 20th century and until his death in 1932. He participated in important exhibitions held at the Anderson Galleries and others. He also exhibited regularly at the New York based Society of Independent Artists and was elected their director in 1919. In 1924 the New York dealer Erhard Weyhe bought the contents of Maurer's studio and represented the artist for the remainder of his career.

It is extremely difficult to run across any of Maurer’s paintings as most of his work is still privately owned.

Maurer took his own life by hanging several weeks after his father's death. At the time of his death, examples of his works were included in the Memorial Hall Museum in Philadelphia, PA, the Phillips Memorial Gallery in Washington, DC. the Barnes Collection in Merion, PA, and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City.

References

*cite news | title=A.H. Maurer, Artist, Suicide by Hanging | date=August 5, 1932 | publisher=New York Times | url=http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/nytimes/100783594.html?did=100783594&FMT=ABS&FMTS=AI&date=Aug+5%2C+1932&author=&pub=New+York+Times++(1857-Current&desc=A.H.+MAURER%2C+ARTIST%2C+SUICIDE+BY+HANGING
* Epstein, Stacey (1999). "Alfred H. Maurer, Aestheticism to Modernism : 30 November 1999 through 15 January 2000, Hollis Taggart Galleries ", New York: Hollis Taggart Galleries. ASIN B0006RBPVA.

ee also

*American modernism
*Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession

External links

* [http://www.hollistaggart.com/artists/maurer.htm Alfred Henry Maurer Biography: Hollis Taggart Galleries]