At the age of four, Maurice Braun and his family left their home in Hungary for the United States, settling in New York City. After protesting an apprenticeship with a jeweler, the teenage Braun was given permission to pursue studies in art. He began by copying paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. He later received formal training at the National Academy of Design where he studied still life and portrait painting under George W. Maynard, Edgar M. Ward, and Francis C. Jones. Braun then devoted a year of study with William Merritt Chase before leaving for Europe in 1902 to study and copy Old Master paintings. After a year abroad, Braun returned to New York where he established a reputation as a figure and portrait painter.
In 1910, Braun's affiliation with the Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society, a spiritualist organization, brought him to California. Braun settled in San Diego where the Society provided him with a studio on Point Loma. After the move, Braun changed his focus to landscape painting. He received national recognition for his Impressionistic landscapes set in the southern California hills, the High Sierras, and the Southwest desert.
Between the years of 1921 and 1923, the artist returned to the east where he maintained a studio in Silvermine, Connecticut. In 1924, he returned to San Diego, but divided his time between California and the East for the next five years.
While in California, Braun became an active member of the artist community and in 1912, he founded the San Diego Fine Arts Academy which he directed for several years. He cofounded the San Diego Art Guild in 1915 and was a cofounder of the Contemporary Artists in San Diego in 1929. Braun held membership in several other clubs including the Laguna Beach Art Association, the San Diego Fine Art Association, the California Art Club, the Salmagundi Club, and the Academy of Western Painters.
During the 1930's, Braun returned to portraiture and painted still lifes that combined orientalizing motifs with natural objects. His involvement with the Theosophical Society and subsequently, transcendentalism, also increased during this time. Maurice Braun continued to live in California until his death in 1941.
Exhibited: National Academy of Design, 1900 (prize), 1911-15; Carnegie Institute, 1911-15; Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, 1914, 1917-19; Panama-California Exposition, San Diego, 1916 (gold); Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1918 (solo), 1920 (solo); Corcoran Gallery, 1921; California Annual, San Diego, 1934; Golden Gate Exposition, San Francisco, 1939; Art Institute of Chicago.
Works held: Houston Art Museum; Laguna Beach Museum of Art; Los Angeles Commercial Club; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles Women's Athletic Club; Municipal Collection, Phoenix; Art Association, Wichita, Kansas; Art Association, Bloomington, Illinois; Riverside and San Bernadino, California; San Antonio Art Association; Theosophy Center, Pasadena, California.
Further Reading: Artists in California, 1786-1940, Edan Milton Hughes, Hughes Publishing, San Francisco, 1986.; California Grandeur and Genre: From the Collection of James L. Coran and Walter A. Nelson-Rees, Iona M. Chelette, Katherine Plake Hough and Will South, Palm Springs Desert Museum, Palm Springs, California, 1991.; Early Artists in Laguna Beach: the Impressionists, Janet Blake Dominik, Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, California, 1986.; The Illustrated Biographical Encyclopedia of Artists of the American West, Peggy and Harold Samuels, Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City, New York, 1976.; Who Was Who in American Art 1564-1975: 400 Years of Artists in America, Vol. 1. Peter Hastings Falk, Georgia Kuchen and Veronica Roessler, eds., Sound View Press, Madison, Connecticut, 1999. 3 Vols.
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