“Abstract Head”, Alfred Henry Maurer, date unknown
Alfred Henry Maurer (American, 1868 - 1932)
Oil on cream laid paper, 52.1 x 39.8 cm. Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Lois Orswell.
---
Alfred Henry Maurer (April 21, 1868 – August 4, 1932) was an American modernist painter. He exhibited his work in avant-garde circles internationally and in New York City during the early twentieth century.
About his approach to painting after abandoning realism, Maurer commented, "My main concern in painting is the beautiful arrangement of color values -- that is, harmonized masses of pigment, more or less pure. For this reason, it is impossible to present an exact transcription of nature....It is necessary for art to differ from nature....Perhaps art should be an intensification of nature; at least it should express an inherent feeling which cannot be obtained from nature except through a process of association....The artist must be free to paint his effects. Nature must not bind him."
-Wikipedia
---
Source and download: https://harvardartmuseums.org/collections/object/308794