The Breezy Common

The horizontal format that Maurice Prendergast used in The Breezy Common (CR 1657) is unusual in his monotypes.  Here it provides an expanse of green as a backdrop for the figures of running girls.  More typical of Prendergast's monotypes is the high horizon, which in this work conveys the immensity of the park.  Two fashionably dressed women and a girl attired in a peach-colored dotted dress form the focal point of the picture. They stride into the space from the left, in contrast to the little girls who gambol across the park from the right, all clad in white except for one in a red dress whose bright outfit balances the composition.  Along the bottom edge of the green line border that frames the image, Prendergast inscribed the work's title and his name.

Until 1896, the artist and his brother Charles Prendergast lived in Roxbury, a Boston neighborhood adjacent to Franklin Park, the largest of the city's newly designed parks.  Renowned for its Commons, Franklin Park was part of the so-called Emerald Necklace, a continuous string of green spaces and America's first citywide park system, designed in the late nineteenth century by urban landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted.  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 produced scenes of Franklin Park in several media, including the oil painting Franklin Park, Boston (TF 1999.112), watercolors entitled Franklin Park, Boston (TF 1999.111 and TF 1999.113), and three monotypes entitled The Breezy Common (TF 1992.72, CR 1661; TF 1992.73, CR 1657; TF 1992.74, CR 1658). These works demonstrate Prendergast's fluid use of a single subject across different media.  Several share a compositional formula based on a watercolor sketch from the "Boston Water-color Sketchbook" (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, CR 1478).  The "Franklin Park" suite is a subset of the series "Children at Play."

One of the monotypes bearing the same title (TF1992.74, CR 1658) is a cognate, or second impression, of The Breezy Common.  Other examples of cognates in the Terra Foundation collection include Children in Street (TF 1992.77, CR 1605) and Going to School (TF1992.85, CR 1606); and Primrose Hill (TF 1992.98, CR 1619) and Primrose Hill No. 2 (TF 1992.99, CR 1620). For more information, see Maurice Brazil Prendergast, Charles Prendergast: A Catalogue Raisonné (1990), to which the CR numbers for the monotypes noted above refer.

American Art in the Making: Preparatory Studies of Masterpieces of American Painting 1800–1900, Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, Washington, D.C. (organizer). Venues: Brunnier Gallery, Iowa State University, December 15, 1975–January 26, 1976; San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, California, February 7–March 7, 1976; J. B. Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky, March 27–April 25, 1976; Charleston Gallery of Sunrise, Charlestown, West Virginia, May 15–June 13, 1976; Wesleyan’s Center for the Arts, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, July 3–August 1, 1976; Beaumont Art Museum, Beaumont, Texas, August 21–September 19, 1976; Wichita State University, Wichita, Kansas, November 27–December 26, 1976; The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., January 11–February 6, 1977. [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). 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.

The Eight and American Modernisms, Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago, Illinois, New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, Connecticut, and Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (organizers). Venues: New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, Connecticut, March 6–May 24, 2009; Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, June 6–August 23, 2009. [exh. cat]

Sellin, David. American Art in the Making: Preparatory Studies of Masterpieces of American Painting 1800–1900. (exh. cat., Smithsonian Traveling Exhibition Service). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Traveling Exhibition Service, 1976. Text pp. 74, 93 (checklist); fig. 113, p. 75.

Langdale, Cecily. The Monotypes of Maurice Prendergast: A Loan Exhibition. (exh. cat., Davis & Long Company). New York: Davis & Long Company, 1979. Text pp. 8, 93; ill. no. 58 (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. 25, 30, 33, 34, 38, 104, ill. no. 29, p. 105 (color).

"A Singular Type: A Portfolio of Monotypes by Maurice Prendergast." Eastern [Airlines] Review (February 1985): 51–54. Ill. p. 54.

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

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. 1657, p. 600; ill. no. 1657, p. 600 (black & white).

Kennedy, Elizabeth et al. The Eight and American Modernisms. (exh. cat., New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, Connecticut and Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for American Art, 2009. Text pp. 110, 175 (checklist); Ill. p. 122 (color).