Skip to main contentBiographyMaurice Brazil Prendergast (1858–1924) created highly patterned and richly colored modern scenes filled with people enjoying lake fronts, beaches, streets, and city parks. The rhythmic, decorative, near-abstract style of his later years placed him firmly in the realm of modern American artists active in the early twentieth century.
The son of a grocer, Prendergast was born in Newfoundland, Canada. When the boy was ten, the family encountered financial difficulties which prompted them to relocate to Boston, his mother’s native city. Prendergast attended school until the age of fourteen, then worked at a variety of odd jobs. One of those jobs was as a designer for the Boston printer Peter Gill, whose company produced cards and other graphic materials. This professional artistic experience likely inspired Prendergast to pursue further training. [1]
In 1891, Maurice Prendergast and his brother Charles went to Paris. Maurice spent three years in France, studying at the Académie Julian and traveling with other young artists to the coast to sketch and paint. After his return to Boston, he continued to paint, began to exhibit his work, and joined artistic societies. Although he did paint in oil, he more often chose watercolor as his medium during the 1890s, producing fresh outdoor scenes and recording modern life in the city or at the beach. He also experimented with printmaking by creating monotypes.
In 1898, at age forty, Prendergast traveled to Italy. His paintings from this period are some of the best known of his career: bridges and piazzas in Venice, enlivened by brightly colored flags and banners. His skill with the watercolor medium was at its height during this time. In Splash of Sunshine and Rain, 1899, private collection, for example, he controlled the paint so that some areas remain discrete, some areas blend into each other, and some areas remain unpainted so that the white of the paper creates highlights in the composition. He added pencil lines to emphasize form.
After his return to Boston, Prendergast began to show at the prestigious Macbeth Gallery in New York, a development that led to friendships with Robert Henri, George Luks, Arthur B. Davies, John Sloan, and William Glackens, with whom he was especially close. In 1908, he participated in the exhibition of The Eight at Macbeth Gallery. Although his delicately painted work differed markedly from the gritty, raw images of those Ashcan School painters, the artists were united by a common interest in depictions of modern life in an urban setting. In 1913, Prendergast participated in the Armory Show, where he was particularly captivated by the work of Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, and Henri Matisse. [2] The following year he and Charles moved permanently to New York.
Despite increasing ill health, Prendergast continued to exhibit, travel, and paint in the 1910s and 1920s. His work during this period changed in three significant ways. First, he painted more and more in oil on canvas. Second, he began to flatten the image more, denying the illusion of spatial recession, and became, with Mary Cassatt, one of the first American artists to do this. Third, although he continued to demonstrate an interest in contemporary scenes and characters presented in modern outdoor settings, some of his paintings from this period began to take on an ethereal, otherworldly, almost mythical feeling, as in Acadia from circa 1918–23 in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art.
Maurice never married; his closest relationship was with his brother Charles, a furniture decorator, frame maker, and lifelong champion of Maurice’s work. After Maurice died in 1924, Charles married Eugénie van Kemmel, who was thirty years younger than he. When Charles died in 1948, Eugénie took up the cause of promoting the work of the Prendergast brothers, organizing exhibitions and placing Maurice’s paintings in prominent collections.
Notes:
[1] Biographical data and dates are adapted from Nancy Mowll Mathews, Maurice Prendergast (Williamstown, MA: Prestel, in association with Williams College Museum of Art, 1990), 176–178.
[2] Ellen M. Glavin and Eleanor Green, Maurice Prendergast: Art of Impulse and Color (College Park, MD: The University of Maryland, 1976), 65.
Maurice Brazil Prendergast
1858 - 1924
The son of a grocer, Prendergast was born in Newfoundland, Canada. When the boy was ten, the family encountered financial difficulties which prompted them to relocate to Boston, his mother’s native city. Prendergast attended school until the age of fourteen, then worked at a variety of odd jobs. One of those jobs was as a designer for the Boston printer Peter Gill, whose company produced cards and other graphic materials. This professional artistic experience likely inspired Prendergast to pursue further training. [1]
In 1891, Maurice Prendergast and his brother Charles went to Paris. Maurice spent three years in France, studying at the Académie Julian and traveling with other young artists to the coast to sketch and paint. After his return to Boston, he continued to paint, began to exhibit his work, and joined artistic societies. Although he did paint in oil, he more often chose watercolor as his medium during the 1890s, producing fresh outdoor scenes and recording modern life in the city or at the beach. He also experimented with printmaking by creating monotypes.
In 1898, at age forty, Prendergast traveled to Italy. His paintings from this period are some of the best known of his career: bridges and piazzas in Venice, enlivened by brightly colored flags and banners. His skill with the watercolor medium was at its height during this time. In Splash of Sunshine and Rain, 1899, private collection, for example, he controlled the paint so that some areas remain discrete, some areas blend into each other, and some areas remain unpainted so that the white of the paper creates highlights in the composition. He added pencil lines to emphasize form.
After his return to Boston, Prendergast began to show at the prestigious Macbeth Gallery in New York, a development that led to friendships with Robert Henri, George Luks, Arthur B. Davies, John Sloan, and William Glackens, with whom he was especially close. In 1908, he participated in the exhibition of The Eight at Macbeth Gallery. Although his delicately painted work differed markedly from the gritty, raw images of those Ashcan School painters, the artists were united by a common interest in depictions of modern life in an urban setting. In 1913, Prendergast participated in the Armory Show, where he was particularly captivated by the work of Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, and Henri Matisse. [2] The following year he and Charles moved permanently to New York.
Despite increasing ill health, Prendergast continued to exhibit, travel, and paint in the 1910s and 1920s. His work during this period changed in three significant ways. First, he painted more and more in oil on canvas. Second, he began to flatten the image more, denying the illusion of spatial recession, and became, with Mary Cassatt, one of the first American artists to do this. Third, although he continued to demonstrate an interest in contemporary scenes and characters presented in modern outdoor settings, some of his paintings from this period began to take on an ethereal, otherworldly, almost mythical feeling, as in Acadia from circa 1918–23 in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art.
Maurice never married; his closest relationship was with his brother Charles, a furniture decorator, frame maker, and lifelong champion of Maurice’s work. After Maurice died in 1924, Charles married Eugénie van Kemmel, who was thirty years younger than he. When Charles died in 1948, Eugénie took up the cause of promoting the work of the Prendergast brothers, organizing exhibitions and placing Maurice’s paintings in prominent collections.
Notes:
[1] Biographical data and dates are adapted from Nancy Mowll Mathews, Maurice Prendergast (Williamstown, MA: Prestel, in association with Williams College Museum of Art, 1990), 176–178.
[2] Ellen M. Glavin and Eleanor Green, Maurice Prendergast: Art of Impulse and Color (College Park, MD: The University of Maryland, 1976), 65.
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