Landscape

Maker Alfred Henry Maurer (American, 1868 - 1932)

ClassificationsPAINTINGS

Dateca. 1916

Mediumoil on gessoed board

Dimensions18 x 21 3/4 in. (45.7 x 55.2 cm.)

DescriptionTwo different paintings on both sides of board; see 2000.2a

SignedSigned in lower left of recto: A. H. Maurer

InscribedSigned in lower left of recto: A. H. Maurer

Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Purchased with funds from the Virginia Steele Scott Foundation

Status

Not on view

Label TextRed Table-Top Still Life is a work from Alfred H. Maurer's Fauvist period. Living in Paris in 1905, Maurer experienced the emergence of Fauvism -- a movement whose members were dubbed by a critic "Les Fauves" (Wild Beasts) because of their violently colorful and wildly brushed canvases. Maurer also became a frequenter of the intellectual circle surrounding Gertrude and Leo Stein, attending their Saturday evening soirées and participating in lively discussions on contemporary art and aesthetics. He became familiar with the Steins' magnificent art collection of works by such radical European artists as Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso. Maurer, in turn, introduced fellow American artists and art collectors, among them William Glackens and Albert C. Barnes, to European modernism. In 1907, under the influence of Fauvism, particularly the work of Matisse, Maurer began to paint his own wildly brushed and brilliantly colored landscapes, such as the image found on the verso of this work.

Returning to the United States after the outbreak of World War I, Maurer brought with him first-hand knowledge of the artistic developments of pre-war Paris. Selectively engaged with Fauvism and Cubism, he developed a highly personal and identifiable Cubist style, particularl concentrating on still lifes, abstractions, and portraits of women. The intensely colored and thinly glazed Red Table-Top Still Life was inspired more by Maurer's fascination with Matisse's decorative style rather than by the Cubism of artists such as Georges Braque and Picasso. The arrangement of brightly colored, abstracted forms on the table-top also demonstrates how Cézanne's structural composition had become increasingly important to Maurer. The work represents Maurer's personal re-interpretation and unique artistic synthesis of Cézanne's still life compositions, Matisse's decorative arrangements, and Maurer's own experience of Cubism.

Object number2000.2b