Young Woman in Kimono

c. 1901

Alfred H. Maurer

Painter, American, 1868 - 1932

A pale-skinned young woman wearing a kimono stands facing our left in a dim interior in this vertical painting. Her black hair is upswept, and her head tilts slightly down with eyes closed. The seat of a wooden, ladderback chair rests against the back of her knees. With her left hand, closer to us, she reaches back to grasp the top rail chair behind her. She holds a folded white and brown fan in her other hand, by her side. Her voluminous robe is fawn brown and trimmed with brilliant scarlet red down the collar and around the hem. The kimono has wide, long brown sleeves that come down past her hips. The red collar extends nearly to her knees, and another slash of red lines the deep sleeve on her extended arm. The robe pools on the floor at her feet. Above the red band along the bottom hem, the robe is painted loosely in patches and dabs of black, cobalt blue, turquoise, ruby red, and pale pink. Light from the upper right gives her peachy skin a golden tinge and highlights the furniture near her, while casting the rest of the room in shadow. She stands in front of a round table draped with a fabric mottled in earth brown and gray, and bordered with a dark brown band filled with smudges of orange and green. A book and a black carrying case or bag are barely visible on the table's shadowy surface. An image framed in light blue hangs on the olive-green wall over the table. The wall to our right, behind the woman, is mostly forest green. The artist signed the lower right in black paint, “Alfred H. Maurer.”

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An elegant woman is swathed in a sumptuous kimono, one hand resting on the back of a wooden chair and the other holding a partially opened fan. Artist Alfred Maurer emphasized the purely visual, aesthetic aspects of the scene—the use of diagonals, asymmetry, and contrasting colors—rather than suggesting a narrative.

Through the painting’s shallow space and decorative patterning, and the incorporation of objects referencing Japan, Young Woman in Kimono evinces Maurer’s fascination with popular elements of Japanese art and design. In the late nineteenth century, Japanese prints circulated widely in European and American markets, and collectors eagerly amassed Japanese decorative arts. This historical captivation with Japan, which did not necessarily reflect a deep understanding of Japanese culture, was known as japonisme.

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Artwork overview

More About this Artwork

This nearly square painting shows an industrial area with buildings, storage silos, a smokestack, and railroad tracks. A mound of brown dirt or other material is in shadow in the lower left corner of the painting. Next to the mound, railroad tracks extend diagonally from the lower center of the painting into the distance to our right. The tracks end at a white building with staggered gray rooflines to our right in the distance. A tall terracotta-red smokestack rises high beyond the white building, smoke pouring out of its top and blending into the clouds above. Just beyond the mound of dirt, piles of white material, perhaps in unseen bins, line the railroad track to our left and lead back to a row ten interconnected, coral-orange silos. The horizon comes about halfway up the painting, and it is lined with a row of long white and gray warehouses. The artist signed and dated the work with brown paint in the lower right corner: “Sheeler 31.”

Scholarly Series:  American Paintings, 1900–1945

Scholarly Article:  American Paintings, 1900–1945: Young Woman in Kimono, c. 1901

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Probably by descent in the family of Francis G. Newlands [1846-1917], Washington; his daughters, Edith Newlands Johnston [1876-1965, Mrs. Charles Haven Johnston], and Janet Newlands Johnston [1878-1963, Mrs. William Bernard Johnson], Washington; gift 1950 to Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; acquired 2014 by the National Gallery of Art.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1908

  • Possibly Special Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture by Six American Artists Residing in France, Art Institute of Chicago; Memphis Society of Fine Arts, Detroit Art Museum, 1908, no. 23, as Girl in Brown Kimono.

  • Possibly A Special Exhibition of Paintings by the French Impressionists and the Works of Six American Artists Residing in Paris, Minneapolis Society of Fine Arts, 1908, no. 91, as Girl in Brown Kimono.

1958

  • A Retrospecitve Selection of Oils by Alfred H. Maurer, Bertha Schaefer Gallery, New York, 1958. checklist no. 1.

1973

  • Alfred H. Maurer, 1868-1932, National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, 1973, no. 3.

  • Alfred H. Maurer: An American Modernist, University of Minnesota Gallery, Minneapolis, 1973, unpublished checklist.

1985

  • Henri's Circle, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 20 April-16 June 1985, unnumbered checklist.

1988

  • Le Japonisme, Grand Palais, Paris; National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 1988, no. 100.

1995

  • At Home with Art: Paintings in American Interiors, 1780-1920, Katonah Museum of Art, New York, 1995, unnumbered checklist.

1996

  • The Kimono Inspiration: Art and Art-to-Wear in America, Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, 1996-1997, unpublished checklist.

2002

  • The Gilded Cage: Views of American Women, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 2002, unpublished checklist.

2004

  • Figuratively Speaking: The Human Form in American Art, 1770-1950, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 2004-2005, unpublished checklist.

2008

  • The American Evolution: A History through Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 2008, unpublished checklist.

2013

  • American Journeys: Visions of Place, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 21 September 2013 - 28 September 2014, unpublished checklist.

2015

  • Alfred Maurer: At the Vanguard of Modernism, National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts, New York; Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, 2015-2016 (shown only in Andover and Bentonville), unnumbered catalogue, repro.

Bibliography

2003

  • Epstein, Stacey Beth. "Alfred H. Maurer: Aestheticism to Modernism, 1897-1916." Ph.D. dissertation, City University of New York, 2003: 46, 50-51, repro.

2011

  • Naeem, Asma. "Alfred Henry Maurer, Young Woman in Kimono." In Corcoran Gallery of Art: American Paintings to 1945. Edited by Sarah Cash. Washington, 2011: 184-185, 275, repro.

Inscriptions

lower right: Alfred H. Maurer

Wikidata ID

Q46632298

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