The Breezy Common

Maurice Prendergast's The Breezy Common (CR 1661) is a variation on the composition of another monotype and its cognate, both of which also bear the title The Breezy Common (TF 1992.73, CR 1657, and TF 1992.74, CR 1658). Although sharing the other works' high horizon, this composition differs in its vertical orientation, which diminishes the breadth of green lawn in the background and emphasizes the flattened, tipped-up space.  The dominant figures in the left foreground here consist of only one woman and a girl. Their dresses add strong notes of peach and white.  In the background, a flurry of pastel-tinted shapes, suggesting a flock of birds in flight, represents running girls dressed in bright colors.  A deep green line border framing the composition is inscribed with the title and the artist's signature.

Until 1896, the artist and his brother Charles Prendergast lived in Roxbury, a Boston neighborhood adjacent to Franklin Park, the largest green space in a continuous string of parks designed by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted in the late nineteenth century.  In the 1890s, leisure time for the working-class was a revolutionary new concept. For urban industrial workers, Franklin Park was considered an ideal spot to spend one's weekends.

Prendergast made eight monotypes that are variations on the composition seen in this example, based on a watercolor sketch from the "Boston Water-color Sketchbook" (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, CR 1478).  The artist produced scenes of Franklin Park in other media, including the oil painting Franklin Park, Boston (TF 1999.112) and two watercolors of the same title (TF 1999.111 and TF 1999.113).  The "Franklin Park" suite should be considered a subset of the series "Children at Play."

According to the inscription in graphite in the bottom margin of the paper, this monotype was a New Year's gift to fellow artist Walt Kuhn in 1921.  Prendergast and Kuhn met while helping to organize the important so-called Armory Show of 1913, and their friendship flourished after Prendergast moved to New York City, where Kuhn lived, in 1914. For more information on this and more of Prendergast’s work, see Maurice Brazil Prendergast, Charles Prendergast: A Catalogue Raisonné (1990), to which the CR numbers for the monotypes noted above refer.

The Doctor Collects Art: An Exhibition Honoring the Centenary of the Michigan State Medical Society, The Detroit Institute of the Arts, Detroit, Michigan, September 19–October 3, 1965.

Maurice Prendergast: The Monotypes, William Cooper Procter Art Center, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, May 1–21, 1967.

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.]

A Proud Heritage: Two Centuries of American Art, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venues: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, April 21–June 21, 1987. [exh. cat.]

The Work of Charles and Maurice Prendergast, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venues: 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). Venues: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, April 26, 1996–January 5, 1997.

Portrait of a Lady : peintures et photographies américaines en France, 1870–1915 (Portrait of a Lady: American Paintings and Photographs in France, 1870–1915), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, Giverny, France and Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France (organizers). Venues: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, Giverny, France, April 1–July 14, 2008; Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France, September 25, 2008–January 5, 2009 (exhibited in Bordeaux). [exh. cat.]

Vanessa Lecomte, editor. Portrait of a Lady : peinture et photographies américains (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny and Musée des beaux-arts de Bordeaux). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for American Art, 2008. Text (checklist) p. 94.

Howat, John K. and Dianne H. Pilgrim. American Impressionist and Realist Paintings and Drawings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Raymond J. Horowitz. (exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art). New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1973. Text p. 104.

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. 12, 30, 34, 102; ill. no. 28, p. 103 (color).

Sokol, David M. "The Terra Museum of American Art, Evanston, Illinois." The Magazine Antiques 126:5 (November 1984): 1156–69. Pl. XXVI, p. 1167 (color).

"Experimentation with Modernism: Museum Exhibit to Display 55 Prendergast Monotypes." [North Adams] Transcript (September 13, 1985): 6. Ill. p. 6.

Sherrill, Sarah B. "Current and Coming: American Art." The Magazine Antiques 127:1 (January 1985): 54, 60. Text pp. 54, 60; ill. p. 54.

Stevens, Elisabeth. "Monotypes Have Lyricism." Baltimore Sun (March 8, 1985): B, 1, 4. Text p. 4B.

Heimann, Nora M. "Singular Impressions." Arts [The Magazine for Members of The Minneapolis Society of Fine Arts] 9:12 (December 1986): 20–23. Ill. pp. 1 (color detail), p. 20 (color).

Atkinson, D. Scott et al. A Proud Heritage: Two Centuries of American Art. Edited by Terry A. Neff. (exh. cat., Terra Museum of American Art). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1987. Pl. T-107, p. 216 (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. 1661, p. 601; ill. no. 1661, p. 601 (black & white).