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

Virgil Thomson Virgil Thomson (November 25, 1896 – September 30, 1989) was an American composer and critic. He was instrumental in the development of the "American Sound" in classical music. He has been described as a modernist, a neoromantic, a neoclassic ...

Biography

Maurice Grosser was born on October 23, 1903, in

Huntsville, Alabama Huntsville is a city in Madison County, Limestone County, and Morgan County, Alabama, United States. It is the county seat of Madison County. Located in the Appalachian region of northern Alabama, Huntsville is the most populous city in t ...

. 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 Denman Waldo Ross (1853–1935) was an American painter, art collector, and scholar of art history and theory. He was a professor of art at Harvard University and a trustee of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Early life Denman Waldo Ross was born ...

. While still a student, Grosser's paintings were displayed at the

Fogg Art Museum The Harvard Art Museums are part of Harvard University and comprise three museums: the Fogg Museum (established in 1895), the Busch-Reisinger Museum (established in 1903), and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum (established in 1985), and four research ...

. Grosser was awarded Harvard's Sheldon Fellowship which allowed him to study painting in France. He designed the scenery for two operas by

: ''

Four Saints in Three Acts ''Four Saints in Three Acts'' is an opera composed in 1928 by Virgil Thomson, setting a libretto written in 1927 by Gertrude Stein. It contains about 20 saints and is in at least four acts. It was groundbreaking in form, content, and for its all-b ...

'' (1934) and ''

The Mother of Us All ''The Mother of Us All'' is a two-act opera composed by Virgil Thomson to a libretto by Gertrude Stein. Thomson and Stein met in 1945 to begin the writing process, almost twenty years after their first collaborative project, the opera ''Four Sain ...

'' (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 Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the Allegheny West neighborhood and raised in Oakland, California, Stein moved to Paris ...

and

Alice Toklas Alice Babette Toklas (April 30, 1877 – March 7, 1967) was an American-born member of the avant-garde, Parisian avant-garde of the early 20th century, and the life partner of American writer Gertrude Stein. Early life Alice B. Toklas was b ...

'' 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 an American liberal biweekly 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 tha ...

''. From 1969-1970 he was a Visiting Professor of Art at the

University of Ife Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) is a federal government-owned university that is located in the ancient city of Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria. The university was founded in 1961 and classes commenced in October 1962 as 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 Les Deux Magots () is a famous café and restaurant situated at 6, Place Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris's 6th arrondissement of Paris, 6th arrondissement, France. It once had a reputation as the rendezvous of the literary and intellectual eli ...

'', 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 between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

, the

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...

, the

Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum (commonly known as SAAM, and formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds o ...

Boston Museum of Fine Arts The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...

, and the

Huntsville Museum of Art Huntsville Museum of Art (HMA) is a museum located in Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville, Alabama. HMA sits in Big Spring Park within Downtown Huntsville, and serves as a magnet for cultural activities. In 1957, the Huntsville Art League and Museum ...

*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