Head of a Woman
ca. 1929
Medium
Painting
Classification
Painting
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Dr. and Mrs. George P. Blundell
Accession Number
1979.134
Tags
Art Historical Context
Alfred H. Maurer’s *Head of a Woman*ca. 1929) captures the bold evolution of American modernism through a striking abstract portrait. Maurer (1868–1932), one of the first U.S. artists to embrace avant-garde influences like Fauvism and Cubism his Paris years in the early 1900s, shifted from realistic Impressionist roots to vibrant, abstracted forms by the 1920s. This oil painting, housed in the Smithsonian American Art, exemplifies his mature style, blending distorted facial features with dynamic, almost landscape-like patterns that evoke rhythm and emotional depth. The work’s abstract treatme...