Maurice Grosser


Maurice Grosser was an American painter, art critic, and writer. He was the longtime companion of Virgil Thomson.

Biography

Maurice Grosser was born on October 23, 1903, in Huntsville, Alabama.
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. While still a student, Grosser's paintings were displayed at the Fogg Art Museum. Grosser was awarded Harvard's Sheldon Fellowship which allowed him to study painting in France.
He designed the scenery for two operas by Virgil Thomson: Four Saints in Three Acts and The Mother of Us All. 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, The Painter's Eye, Critic's Eye, and Painter's Progress. At the time of his death, Grosser was writing a memoir entitled Visiting Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas which was posthumously published in The Company They Kept: Writers on Unforgettable Friendships.
From 1956 to 1967 he served as art critic for The Nation.
From 1969-1970 he was a Visiting Professor of Art at 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 Deux Magots, a cafe in Paris. The pair would continue their relationship as lovers and then as best friends for the rest of their lives.

One-Man Exhibitions