Photographed by Scott Wolff. Color corrected by Pat Cagney.

Portrait of Alfred Maurer

Artist Susan Watkins (American, 1875 - 1913)

CultureAmerican

Date1908

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions46 × 30 in. (116.8 × 76.2 cm)
Overall, Frame: 51 1/8 × 36 1/8 × 2 1/2 in. (129.9 × 91.8 × 6.4 cm)

InscribedSigned lower left "Susan Watkins 1908".

Credit LineBequest of Goldsborough Serpell

Object number46.76.176

Not on view

DescriptionPortrait of Alfred Maurer. Maurer is wearing a hat, scarf, and a cloak and is standing in front of a tan wall next to a blue door.
Label TextSusan Watkins American (1875-1913) Portrait of Alfred Maurer, 1908 Oil on canvas Goldsborough Serpell Bequest 46.76.176 Like Watkins and many other American artists of her generation, the New York painter Alfred Maurer (1868-1932) spent his formative years as an expatriate, working in Paris from 1897 to 1914. But unlike Watkins, he fully embraced the tenets of the Paris avant-garde. He became friends with the writers Leo and Gertrude Stein and was influenced by the revolutionary, brilliant-hued canvases of Henri Matisse and his fellow Fauves. His embrace of the avant-garde was marked by a shift in his temperament. The formerly light-hearted painter became more serious and single-minded as he struggled to perfect his new style. Watkins' portrait captures the newly transformed Maurer. Attired in his signature felt hat, cape, gloves, and cane, he seems a decidedly formal presence, a man of purpose ready to exit the doorway behind him and move on to his next appointment. Though we know almost nothing about Watkins' Parisian circle of friends, the mere fact of this portrait suggests her familiarity with at least some of the key players of the expatriate American avant-garde. ProvenanceThe artist, Susan Watkins Serpell, bequeathed to her husband, Goldsborough Serpell, 1913; Bequest of Goldsborough Serpell to the Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences, 1946; Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences transferred to the Chrysler Museum, 1971. Exhibition History"The Gentle Modernist: The Art of Susan Watkins," Waitzer Community Gallery, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., May 15, 2002 - March 2003. "Women of the Chrysler: a 400-Year Celebration of the Arts," Large Changing Gallery, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., March 24 - July 18, 2010.Published ReferencesSee File Letters. Jeff Harrison, "The Art of Susan Watkins, 1875-1913," _American Art Review_ XV, No. 1(February 2003): 142-149, illustrated p. 145.