Maurice Braun
Born Hungary, 1877
Died California, 1941

At the age of four, Maurice Braun and his family left their home in Hungary for the United States, settling in New York City. After rebelling against an apprenticeship with a jeweler, arranged by his family, the teenage Braun was given permission to pursue studies in art.

He began by copying paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. He later received formal training at the National Academy of Design where he studied still life and portrait painting under George W. Maynard, Edgar M. Ward, and Francis C. Jones. Braun then devoted a year of study with William Merritt Chase before leaving for Europe in 1902 to study and copy Old Master paintings.

After a year abroad, Braun returned to New York where he established a reputation as a figure and portrait painter. In 1910, Braun’s affiliation with the Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society, a spiritualist organization, brought him to California. Braun settled in San Diego where the Society provided him with a studio on Point Loma. After the move, Braun changed his focus to landscape painting. He received national recognition for his Impressionistic landscapes set in the southern California hills, the High Sierras, and the Southwest desert.

Between the years of 1921 and 1923, the artist returned to the east where he maintained a studio in Silvermine, Connecticut. In 1924, he returned to San Diego, but divided his time between California and the East for the next five years. While in California, Braun became an active member of the artist community and in 1912, he founded the San Diego Fine Arts Academy which he directed for several years. He co-founded the San Diego Art Guild in 1915 and was a cofounder of the Contemporary Artists in San Diego in 1929.

During the 1930’s, Braun returned to portraiture and painted still lifes that combined orientalizing motifs with natural objects. His involvement with the Theosophical Society and subsequently, transcendentalism, also increased during this time. Maurice Braun continued to live in California until his death in 1941.  

Memberships:
Laguna Beach Art Association
San Diego Fine Art Association
California Art Club
Salmagundi Club
Academy of Western Painters