Max Weber

Estate of the artist
Bernard Danenberg Galleries, New York
Acquired by the present owner from the above, 1970

New York, Bernard Danenberg Galleries; Roswell, New Mexico, Roswell Museum and Art Center; Oshkosh, Wisconsin, The Paine Art Center and Arboretum; Davenport, Iowa, Davenport Municipal Art Gallery; Lincoln, Massachusetts, De Cordova Museum; Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Fort Lauderdale Museum of the Arts; Austin, Texas, The University of Texas; Albuquerque, New Mexico, The University of New Mexico; Fort Worth, Texas, Amon Carter Museum of Western Art; Storrs, Connecticut, The University of Connecticut Museum of Art; Elmira, New York, Arnot Art Gallery; Wilmington, Delaware, Delaware Art Museum, Max Weber: The Years 1906-1916, May 1970-December 1972, no. 5, illustrated p. 14

This work is in good condition. The canvas is lined. There is some paint separation in the left stile of the chair and the legs of the table. Under UV: there is some inpainting to address the paint separation in the table, primarily at lower right, and a few dots of inpainting in the tablecloth at center.
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Max Weber painted Spanish Jug in 1907 while living in Paris and studying under the fauvist painter Henri Matisse. In these rigorous classes Matisse stressed the importance of rendering art from nature: “You must be able to walk firmly on the ground before you start tightrope walking,” Matisse warned his class. (Alfred Werner, Max Weber, New York, 1975, p. 38). Thus, it is not surprising that Weber painted still lifes early in his career.  In Spanish Jug, Weber’s fauvist education is clearly communicated through the bold color palette and reduced perspective. The bright red tablecloth and abstract background push the table accoutrements forward to the center of the composition, immediately drawing the viewer’s eye to the sturdy white jug, standing tall in comparison to the yellow lemon resting just in front of it.

In 1908, Weber joined with other expatriate American artists to create the New Society of American Artists in Paris, which included Alfred Maurer, Edward Steichen, Patrick Henry Bruce and John Marin among others. Weber returned to New York in 1909 well trained in the advanced modernist techniques of the day, and had eight one-man shows within his first six years, including one at Alfred Stieglitz’s gallery “291” in 1911.