
Alfred Henry Maurer
American, 1868–1932
Seated Woman
(Portrait of Jeanne Blazy), 1901
Oil on canvas
32 x 17 ¾ inches
Signed lower left
SOLD
Often acknowledged as the first American modernist painter, Alfred Henry Maurer traced an aesthetic trajectory from traditional beginnings through a number of dramatic styles, including Impressionism, Tonal
A rare transitional work from this period, Seated Woman (Portrait of Jeanne Blazy) incorporates a pictorial strategy developed by Whistler: a single stylishly dressed female posed within an austere interior. The woman in the painting is French model Jeanne Blazy, a favorite subjects of Maurer’s who inspired several of his most famous paintings. Here she strikes a dignified pose, although her sophisticated clothes and hatbox may very well have come from Maurer’s costume trunk.
