Alfred Henry Maurer Original Vintage Antique French Fauve American Modernist Still Life with Flowers Vase Avec Fleurs Oil Painting
Original, antique Alfred Maurer(1868-1932) oil on canvas painting of a still life with flowers:
Vase with Flowers
(Vase Avec Fleurs)
in original carved wood French frame.
The painting measures 16"X 20", plus the frame.
Alfred H. Maurer was a groundbreaking American painter born in New York City in 1868. He attended the National Academy of Design and briefly worked as a lithographer before traveling to Paris in 1897 to study painting at the Academie Julian. He soon rebelled against the conservative academic training and was heavily influenced by the French avant-garde painters, especially Matisse and Cezanne. Maurer lived in France until 1914, during which time his works were exhibited in both France and America, including at Gallery “291”, a prominent New York gallery.
One of his most striking paintings, titled "Still Life with Flowers," reflects the influence of Cezanne and Matisse. The palette in this painting captures that rich depth. The painting depicts a vase of brightly colored flowers in the center, but it is not a traditional floral painting, but rather more fauve and abstract. Maurer's intent was to create a statement of color harmony and a sensation of vitality through the expressive use of a wide range of richly contrasting colors. His sweeping brushstrokes give the composition a flamboyant quality, intensifying the liveliness of the color choices. The flattened space and light pastel-colored patches applied throughout the surrounding areas construct the space and forms essentially pure color. The colorful shadows function as independent compositional motifs and have a material reality of their own.
Maurer's style was heavily influenced by the changes that were occurring in French painting at the turn of the century, particularly in the works of the Fauves or "wild beasts." Through his contacts with these painters during his early years in Paris, Maurer absorbed the conceptual tenets of the modern movement which he helped transmit to America.
Today, he is recognized as perhaps the first American modernist and one of America’s greatest 20th-century painters.
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