Maurice Braun

(b Hungary 1877; d 1941) Born in Hungary in 1877, Maurice Braun immigrated with his family to New York when he was four years old. He studied at the National Academy of Fine Arts from 1897-1900, and the following year with William Merritt Chase. After a six-month trip to Europe in 1902, Braun returned to New York where he began his artistic career as a figure and portrait painter. Seven years later, however, Braun had become more interested in landscape painting. This interest, as well as his commitment to Theosophy, a discipline that aimed to balance all religions with the natural and spiritual world, inspired the artist to move to San Diego. Southern California’s dramatic mountains, vast ocean and brilliant colors epitomized a kind of natural paradise for Braun and he captured the landscape and atmospheric light in an impressionistic style. (credit: Sotheby's catalogue of American Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, November 28, 2001, Lot 93)