Maurice Prendergast facts for kids

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Quick facts for kids Maurice Prendergast
Prendergast in 1913, photo by Gertrude Käsebier
Born	Maurice Brazil Prendergast (1858-10-10)October 10, 1858 St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador
Died	February 1, 1924(1924-02-01) (aged 65)
Nationality	American
Education	Académie Colarossi, Académie Julian Paris
Known for	Post-Impressionism, Painting

Maurice Brazil Prendergast (born October 10, 1858 – died February 1, 1924) was an American artist. He was known for his paintings using oil and watercolor. He also made special prints called monotypes. His art often showed beautiful landscapes and everyday life. His paintings looked like colorful mosaics because of how he used colors. Prendergast is usually linked to a style called Post-Impressionism. He was also part of a group of artists called The Eight.

Maurice Prendergast's Early Life
Studying Art in Paris
Returning to America and Exhibitions
Later Years and Legacy
Prendergast and "The Eight"
Maurice Prendergast's Artistic Style
Gallery
See also

Maurice Prendergast's Early Life

Maurice Prendergast and his twin sister, Lucy, were born in St. John's, a city in Newfoundland. At that time, Newfoundland was a colony of Britain. His family owned a trading post there.

When the trading post didn't do well, his family moved to Boston, in the United States. Maurice grew up in the South End area. As a young boy, he worked for a commercial artist. At 14, he started wrapping packages in a dry goods store. This job helped him notice bright colors and flat patterns, which later became a big part of his art style.

Maurice was a quiet person. As he got older, he became more and more deaf. He never married. He was very close to his younger brother, Charles, who was also a painter.

Studying Art in Paris

Prendergast went to Paris, France, to study art from 1891 to 1895. He attended art schools like the Académie Colarossi and the Académie Julian. In Paris, he met other artists, including the Canadian painter James Morrice. Through Morrice, he learned about English artists like Walter Sickert and Aubrey Beardsley.

He also met French artists Édouard Vuillard and Pierre Bonnard. These meetings helped him become a Post-Impressionist artist. He studied the works of famous painters like Vincent van Gogh and Georges Seurat. Prendergast was one of the first American artists to appreciate and use the ideas of Paul Cézanne. Cézanne was known for his unique use of shapes and colors.

Returning to America and Exhibitions

Prendergast came back to Boston in 1895. He mostly worked with watercolor and monotyping (a type of printmaking). In 1898, he traveled to Venice, Italy. The beautiful scenes there inspired him to create more complex and lively artworks. His watercolor paintings of Venice are still very popular today.

In 1900, he had big art shows in Chicago and New York City. These shows helped him become well-known. In 1904, he met painters William Glackens, Robert Henri, and John French Sloan. He became good friends with Glackens.

In 1908, Prendergast showed his art with these friends and other artists like George Luks, Everett Shinn, and Arthur B. Davies. This group became known as The Eight.

Later Years and Legacy

Even though he had poor health, Prendergast continued to show his art in important exhibitions. Wealthy art collectors started buying his works. In 1913, seven of his paintings were shown at the famous Armory Show. This exhibition introduced many new art styles to America. After this show, people started to appreciate his unique style even more.

In 1916, his art was shown alongside works by Cézanne, Matisse, Seurat, and Van Gogh. After he passed away in 1924, the Metropolitan Museum of Art did not host a special show for him. At that time, his art was still seen as too modern. However, ten years later, the Whitney Museum of American Art held his first memorial exhibition in New York.

Prendergast and "The Eight"

Maurice Prendergast showed his art with "The Eight" in 1908. This group was formed because they disagreed with the strict rules of the National Academy of Design. The Academy made it hard for new or different artists to show their work. Prendergast believed that art shows should be open to everyone, without juries or prizes. This way, more artists could share their work with the public.

This exhibition became very famous in American art history. Many artists in "The Eight" painted everyday city life in a realistic style, known as Ashcan realism. But Prendergast's art was very different. He was much more of a Modernist painter. Because he was linked to "The Eight," some people found it hard to place his art in a specific category. He was truly an independent artist with his own unique style.

Maurice Prendergast's Artistic Style

From the beginning, Prendergast's art often showed people enjoying themselves in parks and on beaches. Early in his career, he mostly used watercolor or made monotype prints. He created over two hundred monotypes between 1895 and 1902. He also tried oil painting in the 1890s, but he focused more on it after 1900.

He developed a very personal style that he used throughout his life. His paintings used bold, contrasting colors that looked like jewels. The shapes in his art were often flattened and arranged in a rhythmic pattern on the canvas. He simplified forms and used bright, flat areas of color. His paintings have been described as looking like tapestries or mosaics.