Maurice Grosser (October 23, 1903 – December 22, 1986) was an American painter, art critic, and writer.

Biography

Maurice Grosser was born on October 23, 1903, in

Huntsville, Alabama Huntsville is the List of municipalities in Alabama, most populous city in the U.S. state of Alabama. The population of the city is estimated to be 241,114 in 2024, making it the List of United States cities by population, 100th-most populous ...

. Grosser attended Harvard University where he studied mathematics, graduating with honors in 1924. While at university, a friend brought Grosser to a life painting class at the Boston Architectural School. From then on he continued life drawing there and at the South Boston Art School. While at Harvard, Grosser also took painting classes from Denman Ross. While still a student, Grosser's paintings were displayed at the Fogg Art Museum. Grosser was awarded Harvard's Sheldon Fellowship which allowed him to study painting in France. He designed the scenario for two operas by Virgil Thomson: '' Four Saints in Three Acts'' (1934) and '' The Mother of Us All'' (1947). In 1985 he created ''18 Portraits'', and each lithograph was accompanied by a musical portrait composed by Thomson. Grosser wrote four books on painting and art criticism: ''Painting in Public/Painting in Our Time'' (Alfred A. Knoff, 1948/Chater Books, 1964), ''The Painter's Eye'' (Rinehart and Co., 1951), ''Critic's Eye'' (The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., 1962), and ''Painter's Progress'' (Clarkson N. Potter, Inc., 1971). At the time of his death, Grosser was writing a memoir entitled ''Visiting Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas'' which was posthumously published in ''The Company They Kept: Writers on Unforgettable Friendships'' (New York Review Books, 2006). From 1956 to 1967 he served as art critic for ''

The Nation ''The Nation'' is a progressive American monthly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper ...

''. From 1969–1970 he was a Visiting Professor of Art at the University of Ife, Nigeria. Grosser died on December 22, 1986, in Manhattan and his ashes are interred at Maple Hill Cemetery, Huntsville.

Relationship with Virgil Thomson

Maurice and Virgil met in 1920 while both were attending meetings of The Liberal Club at Harvard but the intimate relationship between the two would not fully blossom until they met by chance in 1925 at ''

Les Deux Magots () is a famous café and restaurant situated at 6, Place Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris' 6th arrondissement, France. It once had a reputation as the rendezvous of the literary and intellectual elite of the city. It is now a popular tourist ...

'', a café in Paris. The pair would continue their relationship as lovers and then as best friends for the rest of their lives.

One-man exhibitions

*1923 - Sever Hall Harvard University, Cambridge, MA *1925 - Grace Horne Gallery, Boston, MA *1931 - Galerie Vignon, Paris *1933 - Galerie des Quatre-Chemins, April 10 – 22, 1933, Paris *1935 - Hendryx Gallery, New York *1937 - Cadek Conservatory, Chattanooga, TN *1938 - Kunstzaal Benewitz, The Hague, The Netherlands *1938 - Galerie des Quatre-Chemins, April 10 – May 3, Paris *1939 - The Arts Club, Chicago, IL *July 26 – October 18, 1940 - New Acquisitions: American Painting and Sculpture, The Museum of Modern Art, New York *1940,41 - Julien Levy Gallery, New York *1941 - High Museum, Atlanta, GA *1942 - Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX *1942 - Cadek Conservatory, Chattanooga, TN *January 19 – March 26, 1944 - New Acquisitions: 12 American Paintings, The Museum of Modern Art, New York *1944,46 - Julien Levy Gallery, New York *December 23, 1948 – March 13, 1949 - American Paintings from the Museum Collection, The Museum of Modern Art, New York *1948, 50 - Knoedler Gallery, New York *1951 - University of Chattanooga Art Gallery, Chattanooga, TN *1954 - Hugo Gallery, New York *1955 - Alexander Iolas Gallery, New York *1957 - Carstairs Gallery, New York - Recent Paintings, Greece and Brazil *1958 - Carlen Gallery, Philadelphia, PA *1960,62 - Carstairs Gallery, New York - Paintings of Morocco *1963,65,68 - Banfer Gallery, New York *1970 - Art Gallery, University of Ife, Nigeria *1971 - Hirschl & Adler Gallery, New York *1972,74 - Capricorn Gallery, Bethesda, MD *1974 - Boston Antheneum, Boston, MA *1974 - Larcada Gallery, New York *1976 - Huntsville Museum of Art, Huntsville, AL *1977 - Larcada Gallery, New York *1977 - Capricorn Gallery, Bethesda, MD *1979, 80, 82 - Fischbach Gallery, New York

Legacy

*Paintings by Maurice Grosser are at the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

, the

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 500,000 objects. Located near the Prospect Heig ...

, the Smithsonian American Art Museum,

Boston Museum of Fine Arts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, and the Huntsville Museum of Art *The Maurice Grosser papers, 1919–1983, are at the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. *Maurice Grosser Estate in the Goldsmith-Schiffman Family Collection in the Special Collections and Archives at the University of Alabama Huntsville.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grosser, Maurice 1903 births 1986 deaths 20th-century American painters American art critics American landscape painters American male painters Harvard University alumni Painters from Alabama 20th-century American male artists American LGBTQ artists