The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 26, 2024

Effie

Effie

c. 1929
Location: not on view

Description

A dramatic new development emerged in Maurer’s art of the mid to late 1920s. After years of concentrating on landscapes and still lifes, he suddenly began painting figures, a shift that puzzled friends and critics alike. His boldly painted heads, with simplified features and intense expressions, share stylistic similarities with the portraits of the Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani. Perhaps, like other artists reacting against the horrors of World War I, Maurer aspired to create a more humanistic art by merging modernism with a classical sensibility. While traveling in Italy in 1906, he had developed tremendous admiration for the Italian Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli, whose delicate lines and gracefully long necks seem to have influenced Maurer’s late figure style. Maurer also gave his late figures an iconic presence through their intense expressions and large eyes, reminiscent of ancient Mesopotamian and African sculptures.
  • Cleveland, Ohio: The Cleveland Museum of Art; March 28 - July 18, 2004. "Modern American Masters: Highlights from the Gill and Tommy LiPuma Collection".
    Evansville, IL, The Evansville Museum of Arts and Science, "The Leslie Johnson Collection", September 4-28, 1969.
    Springfield, OH, Springfield Art Center, "Summer Arts Festival", July 4-31, 1966.
    Cincinnati, OH, The University Club of Cincinnati, April 1966.
    Dayton, OH, Kennedy Memorial Union, University of Dayton, Ohio, "Art Exhibition of 100 Sculptures, Paintings, Drawings and Prints from the Mr. and Mrs. Leslie S. Johnson Collection", September 23- October 15, 1965.
    Richmond, IN, Lilly Library, Earlham College, October 4-31, 1964.
    Cincinnati, OH, College of Mt. St. Joseph- on the Ohio, February 16- March 13, 1964.
    Dayton, OH, The Dayton Art Institute, October 20, 1961-February 11, 1962.
    Elsah, IL, Principia College, October 25- December 5, 1942.
    Bloomington, IN, Indiana Museum for Modern Art, 1941.
    New York, NY, Onya La Tour Gallery, 1938.
  • {{cite web|title=Effie|url=false|author=Alfred Maurer|year=c. 1929|access-date=26 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2003.53