Alfred Henry Maurer (1868-1932) was born in New York, the son of German-born Louis Maurer, a celebrated painter and lithographer employed for a time by Currier and Ives. At age sixteen, Maurer was taken out of school to work, as his father had done at that age, in his father's lithographic firm. He worked there for about thirteen years, designing cigar and soap labels. However, this did not satisfy the largely self-taught artist. In 1897, after limited study with the sculptor John Quincy Adams Ward and painter William Merritt Chase, Maurer had saved enough money to go to Paris. He remained there for four years, inspired by the Parisian art world and a circle of American and French artists. His work, in the style of James McNeill Whistler, earned recognition with prestigious prizes, such as First Prize at the 1901 Carnegie International Exhibition--the most important exhibition in the world at that time--and similar recognition at major exhibitions in this country and Europe.

At age thirty-six, stimulated by Post-Impressionism, Fauvism and Cubism, and not satisfied with continuing to paint "acceptable" or "fashionable" work, Maurer diligently sought his own method of expression. His revolt, and resulting break with representationalism, caused his international reputation to dissipate almost overnight. Maurer left Paris just prior to World War I, leaving much of his work behind. Regretfully he returned to his father's house where he found no parental support or understanding. The elder Maurer, satisfied with his own career, rejected not only his son's modernist work, but also his son. For the next seventeen years Maurer worked in a garret in his father's house with neither financial success nor critical acclaim. He continued to work and experiment, though he sold his work infrequently and at low prices.

Having celebrated his 100th birthday in 1932, Maurer's father died that same year, leaving his son financially secure and finally free of his father's domination. Tragically, Alfred Maurer--"gentle, introspective, rejected Alfy"--took his own life several weeks after his father's death. Some sources indicate he was in ill health and filled with remorse at not having reconciled with his father before his death. Others state that he could not exist without an object for the hatred that had sustained him for so long.

Hans Hofmann, the influential and respected teacher and painter wrote in 1950:

Four names already excel in the great drama of modern art in America: Alfred Maurer, John Flannagan, Arthur Carles [also in this exhibition], Arshile Gorky. All of them have been guided by the same artistic awareness that no expression can become coherent without being plastically and aesthetically conceived.

Maurer is a painter of enormous stature. His vision of the reality of painting drove him to leave behind the success that accompanied his earlier work. This is the tragedy and glory of every great man; he must follow an inner urge of deeper purpose which may destroy him in order that the work may live. It is the continuation of such essential creativity into another generation that creates tradition.

Maurer, Flannagan, Carles, Gorky, Ryder are the forerunners of a true and great American tradition that is being carried on by the vanguard of advanced modern artists.

Sources:

Babcock Galleries and American Art. "Alfred Maurer, 1868-1932." In TRADITIONS. New York: Babcock Galleries and American Art, n.d.
Geske, Norman A. Pioneer Modern, Alfred H. Maurer, exhibition brochure. Mason City, IA: Charles H. MacNider Museum, 1973.
Klein, Ellen Lee. "Alfred Maurer." Arts Magazine 58 (January 1984).
McCausland, Elizabeth. A. H. Maurer, A Biography of America's First Modern Painter. New York: A. A.Wyn, Inc., 1951.
Reich, Sheldon. Alfred H. Maurer, 1968-1932, exhibition catalogue. Washington, D.C.: National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution, 1973.
Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery archives.