Paul Maze (1887-1979): An Impressionist in England October 3 - December 17, 2000 Marsh Art Gallery, University of Richmond Museums The Marsh Art Gallery, University of Richmond Museums, presented the first ever mid-Atlantic exhibition of the artist Paul Maze (1887-1979). In Europe, Maze has a well-established reputation as a twentieth-century Impressionist, and more recently his work has received renewed attention in America. This exhibition, drawn primarily from private collections in this region, gathers fifty of Maze's finest oils, watercolors, drawings, and pastels created throughout his career. Born in Le Havre, France, Maze was surrounded early in his life by a coterie of artists such as Braque, Pissarro, and Raoul Dufy. Maze befriended several artists who directly influenced his oeuvre, including André Derain and Édouard Vuillard (who persuaded Maze to try pastels, which became his favorite medium because of the great color range and directness of application to the paper). Maze painted oil and watercolor, but he is perhaps best known for his masterful works in pastel.
A veteran of both World Wars and an "international citizen" Maze traveled extensively, but he finally settled in Sussex, England, which quickly became one of his favorite landscape subjects.   An Impressionist in England features many landscape images, and several of the paintings were inspired by his beloved Downs (the hills along the southern coast of England) where he had his home and his studio. Maze also painted maritime scenes of the Normandy Coast and cityscapes of New York, which he visited in 1952 on the occasion of his one-person exhibition at the gallery of Wildenstein & Co. In 1953 he was named the official painter of Elizabeth II's coronation, and this exhibition featured a large painting of the procession and a drawing from that occasion. Similar works by Maze depict parades of English military guards, a subject that he repeatedly returned to, and even a scene of cadets from West Point. An Impressionist in England also includes poignant images of Maze's wife Jesse, and their domestic life at the Mill Cottage in Sussex. Seen at her dressing table or in her fine apparel, these works in particular convey the artist's Impressionist style. Throughout the images in the exhibition, his brilliant use of color and his loose and intuitive yet descriptive style capture the world around him. The exhibition was organized by the Marsh Art Gallery, University of Richmond Museums, and co-curated by Welford Dunaway Taylor, James A Bostwick Professor of English, and Richard Waller, Executive Director, University of Richmond Museums. An exhibition catalogue, published by University of Richmond Museums is available.