207
●
ALFRED MAURER
Fauve Nude
.
Oil on canvas, 1906. 725x420 mm; 28
1
/
2
x16
1
/
2
inches. Signed and dated in oil, verso. Ex-
collection Hollis Taggart Galleries, NewYork, with the label.
Exhibited, “The Color of Modernism: The American Fauves,” April 29-July 26, 1997,
Hollis Taggart Galleries, NewYork.
Alfred Henry Maurer (1868-1932) embraced many of the modern artistic trends during his
career, which ran parallel to the ever-shifting art world at the time, from Impressionism to
Cubism. He received early acclaim at the turn-of-the-century painting in a style that was
evocative of John Singer Sargent, James A. M.Whistler and William Merritt Chase, flirted
with Fauvism at mid-career and transitioned to a Cubist style of portraiture by the 1930s
which echoed Picasso and Cézanne. The artist’s reactionary father, Louis Maurer, who
worked for the lithographic publishers Currier & Ives, was appalled when Maurer turned
away from his traditional roots and began adopting the progressive European movements of
the time.The disapproval of his father weighed heavily on Maurer, who took his own life
in 1932, likely due in some degree to his tumultuous relationship with his father.
Early on, Maurer worked with his father before studying at the National Academy of
Design, NewYork, and moving to Paris in 1897, where he remained until 1914. During
his first decade in Paris, he continued to paint in a traditional style. His friendship with
the Steins (Gertrude and Leo), which began around 1903, directed his attention more
seriously to Modernism, and the purchase of his circa 1905
Au Café
(now in the collection
of the State Hermitage Museum, Leningrad) by I.S. Morozov, the famed Russian Picasso
and Matisse collector, evidenced the changes taking place in his works and foreshadowed
the transformation his style was about to take.
Maurer’s paintings drastically changed after 1905, coinciding with his visit to the Salon
d’Automne, where he was exposed to the bright canvases of Matisse and the other Fauves
at their first public exhibition (Maurer also exhibited 2 paintings at this show.) He quickly
“converted” to Fauvism, abandoning his muted palette for bold, bright colors, and trading
Realism for emotion and subjectivity.
The Armory Show occurred just months after Maurer held his first solo exhibition in
America, at the Folsom Galleries, New York. Maurer contributed four paintings to the
Armory Show, none of which appear to have been for sale.This canvas, dating from 1906,
embodies Maurer at the height of his career—the pivotal, fleeting moment that was his
Fauvist period. No other Fauve nude by the artist from this time and with these rich,
saturated colors has ever been featured at auction before.
[60,000/90,000]
