Venetian Well

A picturesque wellhead in a small piazza is visited by a black shawled woman in Maurice Prendergast's Venetian Well (CR 1705). The textured square cobblestone and the smooth opaque square window panes create a rhythmic background that harmonizes with the geometry of the well's faceted walls and steps, softened by the solitary sapling.  A related drawing in one of Prendergast's Italian Sketchbooks shows a sketchily indicated wellhead and a woman walking past a row of doors and windows. Prendergast's interest in quaint shop fronts can be traced to his admiration for American expatriate artist James McNeill Whistler, notably such works as his Chelsea Shop (TF 1992.148).

The brown border with which Prendergast often finished his monotype images frames Venetian Well on only three sides. Speculation had paired Venetian Well and Venetian Court (TF 1999.124, CR 1706) as two halves of a single composition but printed on separate sheets from the same matrix. The darker monotype Venetian Well was considered the original pull and Venetian Court a later pull or cognate. This account would explain the significant color differences. However, examination under transmitted light has determined that the subtle irregularities along the cut edges of the two sheets correspond perfectly, verifying that they originally were one sheet. Moreover, scientific analysis determined the difference between the two prints' colors is the result of Venetian Court apparently having undergone a bleach bath that lightened it. No documentation remains as to why or when the print was divided or by whom, or when Venetian Court was bathed in bleach. While a border was added to the left edge of Venetian Court to complete it as an independent composition, the same was inexplicably not done for Venetian Well.

Comparisons between Prendergast's different Italian images reveal noteworthy contrasts and similarities in subjects and in techniques. In the Terra Collection the Italian works include, in addition to Venetian Well and Venetian Court, the watercolors The Grand Canal, Venice (TF 1999.123) and Monte Pincio, Rome (TF 1999.117) and its associated monotype Monte Pincio (TF 1992.94, CR 1699). Another Roman monotype is On the Corso, Rome (TF 1992.96, CR 1702). The remaining Italian monotypes connected to Venice are: Bella Regazza: Merceria, Venice (TF 1992.71, CR 1703), Festa del Redentore (TF 1992.83, CR 1708), and Venice (TF 1992.114, CR 1707). 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] Water Color Club: Fourteenth Annual Exhibition, Boston Art Club, Boston, Massachusetts, March 1–16, 1901 (perhaps as no. 59, Venetian Wells).

[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. 53, Venetian Wells).

American Painting, Davis & Long Company, New York, New York, October 6–27, 1976. [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.]

The Work of Charles and Maurice Prendergast, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, March 16–April 21, 1991.

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.

The Decorative Form: The Aesthetic Movement, Arts & Crafts and the Asian Influence in American Art, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, September 16–December 5, 1999.

Prendergast in Italy, Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, Massachusetts, July 18–September 20, 2009; The Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Italy, October 9, 2009–January 3, 2010; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, February 14–May 9, 2010. [exh. cat.]

Langdale, Cecily. The Monotypes of Maurice Prendergast. (exh. cat., Davis & Long Company). New York: Davis & Long Company, 1979. Text p. 12; ill. no. 69, p. 104 (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. 27, 34, 35, 116; ill. no. 35, p. 117 (color).

Heimann, Nora M. "Singular Impressions." Arts [The Magazine for Members of The Minneapolis Society of Fine Arts] 9:12 (December 1986): 20–23. Text p. 23.

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. 1705, p. 615; ill. no. 1705, p. 615 (black & white).

Mathews, Nancy Mowll with Elizabeth Kennedy.Prendergast in Italy. (exh. cat. also translated into Italian as Prendergast in Italia; all pages are identical) London: Merrell in association with Williams College Museum of Art and the Terra Foundation for American Art, 2009. Text p. 116, 183 (checklist); fig. 34, p. 117 (color).