Richard Maury
American, 1935 - 2020Interior with Stefania, 1992
Not on view
Oil on canvas mounted on panel
DimensionsImage: 55 1/8 × 43 3/8 in.
Framed: 60 1/4 × 48 3/8 in.
Gift of Mary Mallery Davis, by exchange, 1994.6
This painting depicts the artist’s model in a domestic setting. American artist Richard Maury lived in Florence, Italy, and is known for replicating the architecture of his Italian surroundings. Maury painted mainly interiors, still lifes, and portraits, incorporating details to create a sense of accumulated history that persists in the present, marked by modern appliances and the contemporary dress of his figures.
Maury’s work is influenced greatly by seventeenth-century Dutch painters, which is evident in his attention to detail as well as the tranquil activities of his subjects. Used to convey a sense of depth within a two-dimensional composition, Maury’s perspective is immediately and strikingly clear when the viewer compares the pictorial size of the bottle on the table to the pictorial size of the sitter. This painting seamlessly blends the old with the new. Although the woman's clothes are modern, the specific era to which they belong is unclear. In contrast, the blue blades of the electric fan, whose hue matches that in the China pattern, indicate that the painting is set in present day.
