GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Maurice Brazil Prendergast was born in St. John's, Newfoundland but spent his childhood in Boston, Massachusetts. His formal education ended in the eighth grade, and he worked in a dry goods store until his growing interest in drawing inspired him to find work with a commercial art firm, where he learned graphic design and illustration. His first trip to Europe came in 1886 followed by a second in 1891, when he was able to study for three years in Paris at Académie Colarossi and the Académie Julian under Jean Joseph Benjamin Constant and Jean-Paul Laurens. While in Paris he also became aware of the post-impressionists Paul Gauguin, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Cezanne, and Pierre Bonnard, whose synthesizing styles had a strong impact on his own development. His next European sojourn came in 1898-99 with visits to Paris and Venice, where the art tradition and sense of pageantry in Paris inspired a series of brilliant watercolors. During his time in Venice he painted watercolors with stronger form and pattern.
The basic tenets of his style were already formed by this time, with a prediliction for festive, outdoor, summer subjects rendered in bright, patterned color and flattened composition. His subject matter concentrated on figures in parks and urban settings seen as pure shapes of color. As his work progressed in both painting and printmaking, his images became increasingly generalized and abstracted. He discarded conventional perspective by uniting foreground and middle ground as in the Beach Scene (c. 1907-1910, 1962.23). The dry chalky surface forms a mosaic-like pattern of pure interwoven colors giving the impression of people and forms.
Stressing the abstract nature of Prendergast's pictorial thinking, all forms are simplified and subsumed into the tapestry-like display of dappled color that confounds distinctions between near and far, figure and ground. All becomes a unified, abstract, and decorative pattern. In this way, his work upholds the influence of American Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, and foreshadows abstract artists in the later 20th century.
After his studies concluded, Prendergast returned to Boston and had a number of exhibitions, capped by a show of watercolors and monotypes at the Macbeth Gallery in New York. In 1901 he won a medal for watercolor at the Pan American Exposition in Buffalo, New York; in 1902 he had an important exhibition at the Cincinnati Museum Association; and in 1904 at the National Arts Club he showed with several peers who went on to become the nucleus of The Eight. In the famous 1908 exhibition of The Eight at Macbeth's Gallery (New York, NY) his work differed from the other artists's gritty realism (later dubbed the Ashcan School). He also participated in the Armory Show of 1913, a pivotal event for American modernism. Late in his career Prendergast summered and painted each year in Massachusetts, drawn especially to the beaches near Boston, and he continued to paint until his death in 1924.
Adapted from
- Steven Nash, Dallas Collects American Paintings: Colonial to Modern (Dallas, TX: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, 1982), 111-112.
- Louise Ellen Teitz, DMA research essay, Collections Records Object File, n.d.
NOTES
% UMO for review, Image Asset
Change name in TMS to Maurice Brazil Prendergast according to ULAN.
Add the source biographical texts to TMS when the text entry field is available.
Geographies added to constituent record.
raised in- Boston, as of 1868, moved there with family
worked in- Boston, as of 1886-1891, 1894-1898, first worked as commercial artist, returned to Boston after traning in Paris
trained in- Paris, January 1891-, studied at Atelier Colarossi under Gustave Courtois, then at Académie Julian under Benjamin Constant, Joseph Blanc, and Jean-Paul Laurens.
worked in- Venice, 1898-1899, 1911
worked in- NYC, 1900-1924, exhibited at Macbeth Galleries and moved to 50 Washington Square South with his brother, Charles Prendergast, in 1914.
Source for the fun fact about early jobs- (Louise Ellen Teitz, DMA research essay, n.d.)
These sources could be added to the research folders within the object files.
1931 catalogue- https://archive.org/details/mauriceprenderga00breu
This 1980 Whitney Museum catalogue gives summaries of the artist's thematic interests.
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IMAGE ASSETS
Photograph of the artist Maurice Prendergast in 1913.
Source: Gertrude Kasebier, Wikimedia Commons, accessed July 18, 2016.
UMO: 265933455: UMO* Review
WEB RESOURCES
- Gertrude Käsebier, Maurice Prendergast (1913)~See a portrait of the artist made by the influential, American photographer, Gertrude Käsebier and housed in the Archives of American Art.
- Maurice Prendergast, 1858-1924~Read the artist's biography on the National Gallery of Art's website.
- Maurice B. Prendergast: A Concentration of Works from the Permanent Collection~This 1980 Whitney Museum catalogue gives summaries of the artist's thematic interests.
ARCHIVAL RESOURCES
FUN FACTS
- When he was born, Maurice Brazil Prendergast's parents ran a trading post in St. John's, Newfoundland. Their business venture failed less than two years later, so they moved the family back to their native city of Boston.
- One of Maurice Brazil Prendergast's early jobs was as a calligrapher. He also apprenticed to a show-card printer, making sketches of cows in nearby the fields in his off-hours.
- In 1893, sketches that had been stolen from Maurice Brazil Prendergast's Parisian studio appeared in the London art journal, The Studio, under another artist's name.
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General Description
Maurice Brazil Prendergast was born in St. John's, Newfoundland but spent his childhood in Boston, Massachusetts. His formal education ended in the eighth grade, and he worked in a dry goods store until his growing interest in drawing inspired him to find work with a commercial art firm, where he learned graphic design and illustration. His first trip to Europe came in 1886 followed by a second in 1891, when he was able to study for three years in Paris at Académie Colarossi and the Académie Julian under Jean Joseph Benjamin Constant and Jean-Paul Laurens. While in Paris he also became aware of the post-impressionists Paul Gauguin, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Cezanne, and Pierre Bonnard, whose synthesizing styles had a strong impact on his own development. His next European sojourn came in 1898-99 with visits to Paris and Venice, where the art tradition and sense of pageantry in Paris inspired a series of brilliant watercolors. During his time in Venice he painted watercolors with stronger form and pattern.
The basic tenets of his style were already formed by this time, with a prediliction for festive, outdoor, summer subjects rendered in bright, patterned color and flattened composition. His subject matter concentrated on figures in parks and urban settings seen as pure shapes of color. As his work progressed in both painting and printmaking, his images became increasingly generalized and abstracted. He discarded conventional perspective by uniting foreground and middle ground as in the Beach Scene (c. 1907-1910, 1962.23). The dry chalky surface forms a mosaic-like pattern of pure interwoven colors giving the impression of people and forms.
Stressing the abstract nature of Prendergast's pictorial thinking, all forms are simplified and subsumed into the tapestry-like display of dappled color that confounds distinctions between near and far, figure and ground. All becomes a unified, abstract, and decorative pattern. In this way, his work upholds the influence of American Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, and foreshadows abstract artists in the later 20th century.
After his studies concluded, Prendergast returned to Boston and had a number of exhibitions, capped by a show of watercolors and monotypes at the Macbeth Gallery in New York. In 1901 he won a medal for watercolor at the Pan American Exposition in Buffalo, New York; in 1902 he had an important exhibition at the Cincinnati Museum Association; and in 1904 at the National Arts Club he showed with several peers who went on to become the nucleus of The Eight. In the famous 1908 exhibition of The Eight at Macbeth's Gallery (New York, NY) his work differed from the other artists's gritty realism (later dubbed the Ashcan School). He also participated in the Armory Show of 1913, a pivotal event for American modernism. Late in his career Prendergast summered and painted each year in Massachusetts, drawn especially to the beaches near Boston, and he continued to paint until his death in 1924.
Adapted from
- Steven Nash, Dallas Collects American Paintings: Colonial to Modern (Dallas, TX: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, 1982), 111-112.
- Louise Ellen Teitz, DMA research essay, Collections Records Object File, n.d.
Fun Facts
- When he was born, Maurice Brazil Prendergast's parents ran a trading post in St. John's, Newfoundland. Their business venture failed less than two years later, so they moved the family back to their native city of Boston.
- One of Maurice Brazil Prendergast's early jobs was as a calligrapher. He also apprenticed to a show-card printer, making sketches of cows in nearby the fields in his off-hours.
- In 1893, sketches that had been stolen from Maurice Brazil Prendergast's Parisian studio appeared in the London art journal, The Studio, under another artist's name.
Archival Resources
Web Resources
- Gertrude Käsebier, Maurice Prendergast (1913)~See a portrait of the artist made by the influential, American photographer, Gertrude Käsebier and housed in the Archives of American Art.
- Maurice Prendergast, 1858-1924~Read the artist's biography on the National Gallery of Art's website.
- Maurice B. Prendergast: A Concentration of Works from the Permanent Collection~This 1980 Whitney Museum catalogue gives summaries of the artist's thematic interests.
Notes
% UMO for review, Image Asset
Change name in TMS to Maurice Brazil Prendergast according to ULAN.
Add the source biographical texts to TMS when the text entry field is available.
Geographies added to constituent record.
raised in- Boston, as of 1868, moved there with family
worked in- Boston, as of 1886-1891, 1894-1898, first worked as commercial artist, returned to Boston after traning in Paris
trained in- Paris, January 1891-, studied at Atelier Colarossi under Gustave Courtois, then at Académie Julian under Benjamin Constant, Joseph Blanc, and Jean-Paul Laurens.
worked in- Venice, 1898-1899, 1911
worked in- NYC, 1900-1924, exhibited at Macbeth Galleries and moved to 50 Washington Square South with his brother, Charles Prendergast, in 1914.
Source for the fun fact about early jobs- (Louise Ellen Teitz, DMA research essay, n.d.)
These sources could be added to the research folders within the object files.
1931 catalogue- https://archive.org/details/mauriceprenderga00breu
This 1980 Whitney Museum catalogue gives summaries of the artist's thematic interests.
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