
Provenance
Mrs Cornelius J. Sullivan(sold:Parke - Bernet Galleries, New York, December 6-7, 1939 lot 44)
Private Collection, NY (Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, 1979)
Salander-O'Reilly Galleries, NY
Private Collection, from the above, 1986
Hollis Taggart Galleries, NY
Private Collection, NY
Exhibitions
New York, Salander-O'Reilly Galleries, "Alfred H. Maurer (1868-1932): Modernist Paintings," November - December 1983, no. 2, illustrated in colourFlushing, New York, The Queens Museum; Evanston, Illinois, Terra Museum of American Art, "The New Society of American Artists in Paris 1908-1912," February - June 1986Roslyn, New York, Nassau Country Museum of Art, "Ode to Gardens and Flowers," May - August 1992JC Gallery, London, 'Through the Harrowed Land: Alfred Maurer and Modernism', 2025
Literature
Stacey Epstein, Alfred Maurer At the Vanguard of Modernism (Addison Gallery of American Art: Andover, MA, distributed by Yale University Press), 2015Still Life, c. 1905-07 marks a pivotal moment in Alfred Maurer’s life, reflecting his experimental years in Paris. During this period, he began to move away from realism, exploring abstraction and the vibrant, emotive colours of early Fauvism. The influence of European modernists, particularly Cézanne and Matisse, is evident in his bold palette and loose, expressive brushwork.
Though not entirely abstract, the painting embraces a withdrawal from traditional representation. A vase, curiously lit from multiple angles, holds wilting flowers that droop and shed petals onto the table beneath, a sign of a truly loved bouquet. The ambiguous setting that is stripped of background detail, adds to the work’s introspective and slightly mysterious mood.
Set in an ornate gilt frame with an elegant plaque, this oil painting stands as a monument to Maurer’s stylistic shift - from academic realism to a modernist vision shaped by the dynamic art scene of early 20th-century Paris. It demonstrates the point at which European creativity was reimagined through an American lens.
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