MAURICE GROSSER Maurice Grosser, son of Edward and Theresa, was born in 1903 in Huntsville, Alabama, the eldest of four children. Maurice’s ancestors were all of German Jewish origin. His father Edward Grosser’s ancestors settled in Tennessee, however I have no information on them other than they immigrated to America around the time of the Civil War. Maurice’s ancestors on his mother’s side settled in Huntsville before and just after the Civil War and were well established by the time Maurice was born a half century later. I Included in Maurice’s file a family tree of my ancestors, four German Jewish families including the Goldsmiths Bernsteins, Schiffmans and Hersteins to illustrate how Maurice and I were related, that is through the Goldsmiths and Bernsteins , my paternal great great grandparents. Maurice’s maternal great grandparents were Morris and Henrietta Bernstein and David and Henrietta Goldsmith. The Goldsmiths immigrated to New York from Germany in 1840 and moved to Huntsville during their later years to live with their son Oscar Goldsmith and his family. The Bernsteins, Morris and Henrietta emigrated from Germany with their families prior to the Civil War and settled in Huntsville. According to Huntsville’s city records, they were married in 1852. Maurice’s maternal grandparents, Oscar Goldsmith and Bettie Bernstein were also married in Huntsville. Maurice’s mother (not included in the family tree) was the daughter of Oscar Goldsmith and Betty Bernstein, the sister of my grandfather, Lawrence Goldsmith. My vignette on Maurice is included in his file. Also included is a copy of his self portrait. Huntsville at the time of Maurice’s birth was a farming and cotton mill town that was first settled in 1805. By 1900 the town had a population of over 5,000. Although after World War II Huntsville grew to be the space capital of the country, during Maurice’s youth it remained a small town. The Goldsmith and Grosser families lived next door to each other on Gates Street. During his early years, Maurice was surrounded by a large extended family including his grandparents Oscar and Betty Goldsmith and his aunt and uncle, Annie and Lawrence Goldsmith and their son, Lawrence Goldsmith, Jr, my father. The Jewish community at the time of Maurice’s birth consisted of a burial ground, a chapter of B’nai Brith, a Jewish fraternal organization and a Jewish synagogue, Temple B’nai Sholom constructed in 1899 by Congregation B’nai Sholom founded in 1876. The Huntsville Jewish community diminished in size around nineteen fifteen as many of the second generation Jews moved to other parts of the country with greater economic opportunities, and larger Jewish communities. As a result of acculturation, Maurice’s parents converted to Christian Science later in life. Two of his siblings converted to Christian Science and a third sibling became Methodist. Maurice remained Jewish but did not practice Judaism. During grammar school Maurice attended a private boy’s school, Wills Taylor. For high school, he attended The Webb School in Bell Buckle, Tennessee, a prestigious college preparatory school noted for the number of Rhodes Scholars it has had in its graduating classes. At Webb School Maurice received a classical education that included Latin, Greek, Mathematics and History. He then went to Harvard where his major was mathematics. While at Harvard, Maurice became interested in art, took a number of courses and after his graduation in 1925, he was awarded a fellowship to study in Paris. While Maurice was in Paris, he became reacquainted with composer Virgil Thomson who he had met earlier at Harvard. Virgil and Maurice became lifelong friends. The two men moved in a circle of avant-garde artists, musicians and writers both in Europe and New York including Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, Ezra Pound, Igor Stravinsky, Georgia O’Keefe and Pablo Picasso. Other than a few years in New York during the late 1920’s, Maurice remained in Paris until 1940 when he returned to New York where he lived for the remainder of his life. During summers Maurice traveled, painting picturesque landscapes, many in Morocco and Maine. He was best known for his still life paintings of flowers, various objects, fruit and vegetables that he called ,”my groceries.” In addition, Maurice painted portraits, including one of me and two of Oscar Goldsmith, Maurice’s grandfather. His fondness of his Papa Oscar was mutual. Oscar Goldsmith played an important role in the lives of all his grandchildren, paid for their education and in the case of Maurice assisted with his support during his early years as a painter, encouraging the rest of the family including his son, my grandfather Lawrence Goldsmith to do so also. In the collection of family papers my father and I gave to the Huntsville Madison County Public Library that was transferred to the University of Alabama Huntsville in 2017 there is a file on Maurice that contains original correspondences between Maurice and his grandfather. Maurice lived modestly, I remember my grandfather saying that he lived in a tiny New York apartment in Greenwich Village, and traveled with only a toothbrush. Maurice had friends all over the world, including those individuals we would today call “jet setters.” Like F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Great Gatsby, there were wealthy individuals during the years before and after World War II who entertained lavishly, surrounding themselves with famous individuals and artists. Likely Maurice was among that group of sought after artists. Maurice was charming, intelligent, and had a great sense of humor. I adored being with him when he visited our family during the 1940’s and on through the years. In addition to my grandparents, Maurice’s Uncle Lawrence and Aunt Annie, his brother Oscar and sister in law Susan lived in Huntsville. Maurice’s parents had moved to Chattanooga years earlier and later moved to Florida. His brother Edward and his sister Betty Johnston, along with their families, lived in St. Louis. I remember that on one particular visit the extended Goldsmith and Grosser families spent a weekend at Holly Tree Camp. Holly Tree was a private fishing and gaming camp for gentlemen, on nearby Paint Rock River where my grandfather went with his friends on weekends to fish, and play poker. There were two large cabins, a large common shower, bath rooms and a kitchen/dining hall. Maurice and I spent time together that weekend, exploring the woods and the river. I especially remember his showing me how to look for river clams. We collected some in a bucket and brought them back to the kitchen to be prepared and served by the waiters and cooks my grandfather had brought from the Russel Erskine Hotel to Hollytree for the weekend. It was during the summer of 1947, when I was six years old, that Maurice painted my portrait. He rode a bicycle while he lived in Europe and then a motorcycle. In 1947 Maurice decided that he also needed a car. Our family had the town’s Dodge dealership. Since he didn’t have the funds, Maurice and my grandfather agreed that he would paint my portrait in exchange for the car down payment which was approximately two hundred and fifty dollars. I remember the experience vividly. Maurice did not like to paint portraits, especially of children because he said, “they wiggled.” I knew to sit still and be quiet for the sittings. Maurice chose what I would wear, a white dotted swiss pinafore and a white ribbon in my hair. He perched me on a small wooden child’s chair placed on a table top and draped my pink doll bed blanket over the back of the chair. I had long hair that my nurse Cora rolled up in pink rubber curlers every night for the sitting the next day. Maurice chose my corner bed room at our Gates Street house because it had three windows and provided excellent lighting in the early afternoon for my sittings. Maurice did take some liberty with my chair, changing it from white to light green. I remember sitting very still with my hands in my lap and not talking while Maurice painted. The portrait may have taken a week or two, but it seemed to have taken a much longer time. After my father and step mother married and moved to the family home on Gates, my grandparents gave them my portrait. I inherited it when my father passed away in 1995. As I mentioned above, before he had a car, Maurice had a motorcycle. There is a photograph that has been reproduced countless times of Maurice on his motorcycle with Georgia O’Keeffe sitting behind him. Maurice is smiling the way I always remember him doing so, with his eyes half closed. Maurice and Georgia knew each other and in 1944 he visited her at Ghost Ranch near Santa Fe in Abiquiu New Mexico. He may have also rented a house for a time nearby in order to paint and write. Maurice took his Harley Davidson Knucklehead out west on the train for his visit. Georgia painted outside her ranch in the desert and not having a car, needed a ride between her ranch and her studio in the desert. Maurice would give her a ride whenever he was in New Mexico. This wonderful pose captured by Georgia’s friend Maria Chabot, is available at the O’Keeffe Museum. A copy is in Maurice’s file. My next memory of Maurice is when I went to New York for the first time. I was in the fourth grade. My grandparents took me there on the train which was another first for me. We stayed at the Essex House on Fifth Avenue during the trip, the highlight of which was seeing the 1950 McArthur parade from our window. The other highlight was spending a day with Maurice. He picked me up early one morning and we took the subway to the Museum of Natural History. I especially remember the exhibit of wild animals in their natural habitats. Afterwards we had lunch at the automat. Automats were popular at that time but were short lived. Maurice put some change in several of the cubical slots, opened the small doors and took out what was inside, our lunch which included a sandwich, a drink and a slice of pie. In the afternoon we went to the Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim. I was not impressed, being nine years old and not knowing anything about modern art. I had wanted to go the Bronx Zoo. We came back to the hotel before dark after a wonderful day --- except for the art museums. After I went away to prep school in 1959, and then to college, followed by my marriage and move to New Orleans, I saw Maurice only twice. The first time was when my grandfather passed away in 1972 and Maurice brought his widowed mother, Theresa, my grandfather’s sister, to the funeral. The last time I saw him was in New York during a visit to the city with my former husband during the 1980’s, a few years before Maurice passed away in 1986. I phoned him and made a date to come by his apartment early one afternoon, after his nap. The building was three or four stories, with no elevator. I remember walking up a flight of stairs and knocking on the door. Maurice greeted me, we hugged, and it was as though time had stood still since we had last met. His apartment consisted of a large living room with little furniture but wonderful light from several large windows. Other than a couch and a few chairs, there was a draped easel. Off to the side was a tiny old fashioned kitchen where I had heard that Maurice prepared fabulous gourmet meals for his friends. I remember wondering how he managed that feat, because when the refrigerator door was open, you couldn’t go out through the doorway. The only other room in the apartment was Maurice’s small bedroom. It had a bed, a dresser and stacks of pallets where he stored his paintings. I didn’t count them, but there must have been around fifty lined against the wall. I remember asking if the paintings were insured. He said “no,” and was surprised that I would suggest the idea. Although Maurice was doing well, he continued to maintain a simple lifestyle. Material items weren’t important to him. We visited for several hours with my asking questions about different family members who had passed away before I was born. He told me that my great Aunt Sophie had had brain fever as a young girl when she was away at school in Germany. That explained why my father had always described her as somewhat limited. Maurice also mentioned that my great Aunt Lilly who had moved to New York when she married, as looking like a plum. He stayed with her during his college years on weekend visits from Cambridge. Sophie and Lilly, who died before I was born, were Maurice’s grandmother Betty Goldsmith’s two sisters. I would have liked to have remained longer, but I saw that Maurice was tiring. Before I left, Maurice pulled the drape off the canvas on the easel to show me the portrait he was working on. It was of a young nude woman in a modest position. What I found fascinating was the color and texture of her skin. The color reminded me of a pearl because it was almost translucent. It was absolutely beautiful. I had in my collection a number of Maurice’s early paintings in addition to the portrait of me that he painted in 1948. I found three of his paintings sometime after I married in an old box in my parent’s storage room. My parents had never gone through the box since they moved to the house on Gates. My grandparents had never displayed the paintings and so I had never seen them before. I remember using a damp cloth to remove the layers of dust that had collected on them, which in later years I learned was the correct thing to do. I asked, and my parents gave them to me. They all were in poor condition. Likely they were painted during Maurice’s visits to see his grandparents during the 1920’s and 1930’s, Mama Betty and Papa Oscar Goldsmith, and were packed away when they died. Since his parents had moved to Chattanooga, Maurice preferred to return to Huntsville on vacations because Huntsville had always been his home. I took the paintings back to New Orleans where I lived and over the years I had them professionally restored. One is a still life of red lilies in vases. My parents had the actual vases which I know must have belonged to my great grandparents. One of the vases is black enamel and has a painted peacock on one of its three sides. The other is pottery with curving handles. The other two early paintings include a still life of zinnias and a self portrait, likely painted when Maurice was around twenty. Over the years I acquired several of Maurice’s landscapes painted in Morocco and Florida, and two portraits of his Papa Oscar. On October 28, 2011, I donated three of Maurice’s paintings to the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia to be included in the Bernstein, Herstein, Schiffman and Goldsmith Collection. The paintings included his self portrait, the portrait of me, and a portrait of Papa Oscar. In 2016, I donated to the Huntsville Museum of Art my other portrait of Maurice’s grandfather, Oscar Goldsmith. I have given to my two daughters, Laurie Lev and Bobbie Wyso, my additional Grosser paintings. The paintings include three paintings of Florida oak trees with Spanish moss, four paintings of Morocco, and two still life paintings of flowers in vases. Prior to giving Maurice’s paintings to the museums and my daughters, I had them professionally photographed and copied on canvas the same size as the originals. They hang in a large room overlooking the Huntsville Courthouse Square in my 1845 office building. I use the front room on the third floor to hold salons with local Huntsville artists, writers and musicians. My copies of Maurice’s paintings help create a unique atmosphere for the events. I like to imagine that they are a little bit like what Maurice might have experienced at Gertrude Stein’s salons. A copy of a composite of my art collection that includes paintings that I have donated to museums and paintings that I have given to my daughters is included in Maurice’s file. I have identified only Maurice’s paintings for this writing. The first row includes A Moroccan House K201911.jpg and Maurice’s Self Portrait 01.jpg. The second row includes a Portrait of Oscar Goldsmith 02.jpg. The third row includes a Portrait of Margaret Anne Goldsmith 06.jpg, Florida Oak Trees with Spanish Moss 07.jpg, A Moroccan House 08.jpg and A Moroccan House 09.jpg. The fourth row includes two of the Vases 10.jpg that appear in the painting in the last row of Red Lillys in Vases. The fifth row includes Florida Oak Trees with Spanish Moss 17.jpg. The sixth row includes Florida Oak Trees with Spanish Moss 18.jpg, Zinnias 19.jpg and Red Lillys in Vases 20.jpg. I have also included a C.D. that includes photographs of the above listed paintings Maurice died at the age of 83 in New York of congestive heart failure. His file includes a lengthy obituary by Grace Glueck that was published in The New York Times Dec. 24, 1986 and one published in The Huntsville Times Friday January 18, 1987. His will dated August 13, 1986 left his writings, correspondences etc. to the Maurice Grosser Collection in the Manuscript Collections of Syracuse University. To his friend Paul J. Sanfacon of New York he left his personal and household effects and to art museums a collection of his paintings sufficient to offset his estate tax. The residue of his estate he left ½ to his friend Paul Sanfacon and the other ½ to his three nieces—Joan Bruce, Jane Johnson and Sally Johnson. Maurice’s probate papers and his tax return are in his file. Note that his estate which included his paintings was valued at over 1.5 million dollars. No tax was due because of his bequest of paintings to charitable organizations to offset the taxes. Also included in the file are a number of correspondences between Maurice’s executor/beneficiary Paul Sanfacon and his nieces the other beneficiaries. I have my cousin, Maurice’s niece Joan Bruce (later Joan von Gohren), to thank for her file on Maurice’s will, probate papers, tax return, and correspondences with his executor. On a more personal note, what eventually happened to Maurice’s estate has influenced me greatly. Maurice’s bequests to his nieces and to his friend Paul Safancon were distributed. His papers that he left to Syracuse University were never received. Maurice’s executor Paul Safancon died before he was able to carry out Maurice’s wishes regarding his bequests to museums and to Syracuse. To my knowledge Paul Safancon’s executor Lou Rispoli never completed the distributions. During 1993 and 1994 , I checked with Syracuse and learned they never received Maurice’s papers. I also learned that Maurice’s remaining paintings had not been distributed to various museums. While in New York in 1993 I visited Lou Rispoli and viewed the paintings he had that had not been given to museums. Afterwards I made an effort to have Maurice’s wishes carried out and also to make a plea for the Huntsville Museum of Art to receive a selection of paintings from his bequest, but to no avail. My correspondences with the executor, the Attorney General of New York, Syracuse University, the director of the Huntsville Museum of Art and Maurice’s siblings are included in his file. Part of the problem was that most of Maurice’s paintings were not framed and needed restoration. Museums seldom take paintings without a donation of funds to restore and frame them unless they are of great value. All the cash in Maurice’s estate had been distributed to his beneficiaries. As a result of what I learned from exploring Maurice’s estate disposition, I have given our family archives and artifacts to universities, libraries, museums and other institutions where I want them to go during my lifetime rather than leave the job to others. This has taken time and effort on my part. The job is never easy to part with family objects and papers. Professionally, Maurice had his first Paris show in 1930, followed by exhibitions in The Hague, Amsterdam; Chicago and New York. An invitation to his exhibition Paintings of Greece (date unknown) held at the Alexander Iolas Gallery at 46 East 57th Street in New York was sent to me by my good friend John Shaver. John found the invitation in his collection of Grosser books and pointed out the quote by Truman Copote on the above mentioned invitation, “These new paintings of Maurice Grosser are like looking straight into the sun, for they contain all the brilliance of real Greek light.” TRUMAN COPOTE. Many of Maurice’s paintings are in permanent collections including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Columbus Gallery of Fine Art, the Virginia Museum of Fine Art, the Springfield Museum of Fine Art and the Huntsville Museum of Art. The Huntsville Times published a lengthy article on the collection of eight paintings given to the Huntsville Museum of Art by Robert Lewis shortly after Maurice passed away. In June of 1987 there was a fine article on Maurice’s work published in Art of America on his paintings at the Fischback Gallery in New York. Another article was sent by Lou Rispoli to friends and collectors of Maurice Grosser that was prepared to advertise the sale at Sotheby’s of four of Maurice’s paintings from the Virgil Thomson collection. Mr. Rispoli used the article to advertise the Grosser paintings he was holding for the estate. Maurice was a writer as well as a painter. He devised a scenario for two operas by Virgil Thomson and Gertrude Stein, Four Saints in three Acts and The Mother of Us All. In 1985 he worked with Thomson on 18 Portraits, a collection of lithographs accompanied by the composer’s musical portraits. When Maurice died in 1986, he was composing a memoir, a section of which was titled, Visiting Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas. It appeared in the New York Review of Books in 1986. Maurice’s published books include: The Painter’s Eye, (1956), The Critic’s Eye, (1962), Painting in Public, (1964) and Painter’s Progress, (1971.) I felt quite honored when he published his first book, The Painters Eye, and dedicated it to his two nieces, Jane, Sally Johnston , and to me. After Maurice died and was cremated, his brother Oscar Grosser told me that he brought Maurice’s remains back to Huntsville and buried him on his grave plot, located in lot 137, block 101. Many years later I checked with the manager of Maple Hill Cemetery and learned that they had information that Maurice Grosser was buried in Maple Hill, the date of his death and the date of his internment. However; their records did not note where he was buried. I then went to look for Oscar and Susan Grosser’s gravestones and saw Maurice’s at the foot of Oscar’s grave. I gave the updated information to the Cemetery office so that now the Maple Hill records on Maurice are complete. Years later, when the estates of Susan and Oscar Grosser were being settled, I was given the deed to Oscar and Susan’s cemetery plot to include in Maurice’s file with his obituary. I am glad to have been able to add this important information to Maurice’s story. It makes me happy to know that after traveling all over the world, Maurice has come home. Note that the last folder in Maurice’s file contains several items relating to his family including a Resolution from the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Huntsville printed at the time of death of Maurice’s brother Oscar Grosser who was an important supporter of the organization. Also included is the deed to Maurice’s parents’ grave plot. I have included for Maurice’s file a second box which includes a number of books, both written by Maurice and several containing references to him. VIRGIL THOMSON, Composer on the Aisle by Anthony Tommasini contains a great deal of information on Maurice. Refer to the Index on page 592 for the author’s references to Maurice - as an art critic, his Four Saints Production, his years at Harvard, homosexuality paintings and his final sickness and obituary. Note that Virgil had a number of Maurice’s paintings in his private collection that were sold at Sotheby’s after Virgil died. Virgil Thomson by Virgil Thomson—Check the index for numerous references to Maurice. The Company They Kept -- Writers on Unforgettable Friendships – A New York Review Collection. Note that Maurice’s memoir of Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas was published in this book. See page 153. Prepare for Saints by Steven Watson, a gift from my good friend John Shaver. Refer to the index on page 362 for references to Maurice including: Maurice; character and personality of; death; paintings of; and as Virgil Thomson’s lifetime companion. Critics Eye, Painting in Public and Painters Progress Three of Maurice’s four books are included. Painter’s Progress is the only book that Maurice wrote containing biographical information. For references consult the index on page 242.

The last publication in Maurice’s file is a copy of his memoir “Visiting Gertrude and Alice, “published in The New York Review of Books . The memoir was a gift from John Shaver.