Two Ladies

In Maurice Prendergast's monotype Two Ladies (CR 1722) two young women turn their faces skyward to enjoy a summer evening under a crescent moon.  Despite the diminutive size of the image, the artist's smallest extant monotype, the quiet mood of a summer night is brilliantly evoked in minimalist terms.  The likely muslin confections of the protagonists' summer dresses are elaborately realized with feminine bows at their necks and waists.  Prendergast effectively harmonized the dresses' delicate colors of peach and pale pink, the women's blond hair, and the silvery moonlight.  The profiles of the women appear as shapes, adding an abstract component to the composition.  Further, the row of circles, created by a stylus or the end of a brush, likewise contributes to the decorative elements of the colored print.  The three-initial artist's monogram is inscribed into the lower left corner of the plate.  Notably, the usual, precisely executed straight-edge line border is missing.  Instead, in many places the obvious, swirling brushwork at the edge of the image forms a definitive edge.

The stillness of the women and their dresses is a far cry from the windblown quality of the typical Prendergast girls' skirts.  Nonetheless, the atmospheric brushwork enlivens the background, whose horizon is only barely suggested by a lightening of the gray background.  The overall surface of Two Ladies displays a grainy or reticulated surface, which is an indication of printer's ink rather than oil pigments.  There is a possibility that Two Ladies was exhibited as Early Moon at the 1901 Detroit Museum of Art exhibition (# 40).  The quietness of the figures provides a particularly evocative comparison with Woman in White Muslin Dress (TF1992.119, CR 1723), whose sheer white summer dress shimmers under a full moon. Primrose Hill (TF 1992.98, CR 1619) is another example of an effective use of a dotted dress.

  Although it has been suggested by Prendergast experts that a second pull from Two Ladies exists, the Catalogue Raisonné scholars disagree.  Two Ladies is a variant motif of the "Solitary Woman" series. For more information, see Maurice Brazil Prendergast, Charles Prendergast: A Catalogue Raisonné (1990), to which the CR numbers for the monotypes noted above refer.

[possibly exhibited] Special Exhibition of Water Colors and Monotypes by Mr. Maurice B. Prendergast, Detroit Museum of Art, Detroit, Michigan, November 1901 (perhaps as no. 40, Early Moon).

Maurice Prendergast: The Monotypes, William Cooper Procter Art Center, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, May 1–21, 1967 (as Two Girls). [exh. cat.]

The Monotypes of Maurice Prendergast: A Loan Exhibition, Davis & Long Company, New York, New York, April 4–28, 1979. [exh. cat.]

Monotypes by Maurice Prendergast from the Terra Museum of American Art, Terra Museum of American Art, Evanston, Illinois (organizer). Venues: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., January 27–April 14, 1985; Terra Museum of American Art, Evanston, Illinois, April 27–June 30, 1985; Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, July 12–September 8, 1985; Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, Massachusetts, September 20–November 17, 1985; Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, Michigan, November 24, 1985–January 19, 1986; Oklahoma Art Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, January 28–February 24, 1986; Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York, May 13–June 15, 1986; Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, June 23–August 24, 1986; Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, Alabama, September 2–October 26, 1986; The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio, November 2–30, 1986; Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, Minnesota, December 13, 1986–February 15, 1987; Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, Florida, June 21–July 31, 1987; Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio, August 8–September 27, 1987; Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, New York, October 4–November 5, 1987; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, November 15, 1987–January 7, 1988; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California, January 20–March 22, 1988; Carnegie Institute, Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, April 9–May 29, 1988. [exh. cat.]

American Treasures: Chase, Whistler and the Prendergasts, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, April 26, 1996–January 5, 1997.

Langdale, Cecily. The Monotypes of Maurice Prendergast. (exh. cat., Davis & Long Company). New York: Davis & Long Company, 1979. Ill. no. 83, p. 119 (black & white).

Langdale, Cecily. Monotypes by Maurice Prendergast in the Terra Museum of American Art. (exh. cat., Terra Museum of American Art). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Museum of American Art, 1984. Text pp. 128, 130; ill. no. 41, p. 129 (color).

Clark, Carol, Nancy Mowll Mathews and Gwendolyn Owens. Maurice Brazil Prendergast; Charles Prendergast: A Catalogue Raisonné. Munich, Germany, and Williamstown, Massachusetts: Prestel-Verlag and The President and Trustees of Williams College, 1990. No. 1722, p. 620; ill. no. 1722, p. 620 (black & white).