Alfred Maurer (1868 - 1932)
Landscape: Provence, 1912 - 1922Oil on paper, mounted on board, 21 x 17 1/4"
Gift of Emily and Milton Rose, 1978.2.3
Part of the circle of avant-garde American artists living in Paris in the early twentieth century, Alfred Maurer was profoundly inspired by the Fauve style developed by Henri Matisse and others. The influence of the Fauves (the word means "wild beasts") is immediately apparent in Maurer's Landscape: Provence, circa 1912. Typical of the style, Maurer's landscape exhibits vibrant colors, a flattened perspective, exuberant brushstrokes, and, above all, an outright rejection of the academic conventions of the nineteenth century. In the intense colors and expressive forms of the Fauve style, Maurer found a new vocabulary for the articulation of emotion and personal vision.