Children at Play

White kites float in the blue sky as young girls in summer frocks, watched by seated women, run across the deep green grass in the monotype Children at Play (CR 1653) by Maurice Prendergast. The composition's tipped-up perspective and high horizon and the asymmetrical effect of the picket fence that cuts diagonally across the lower-right corner of the image all recall the aesthetics of Japanese woodblock prints, which greatly influenced Prendergast.  Using a stylus or the end of a brush handle, the artist carefully outlined each figure and added such details as the decorative dots and squiggles on their dresses.

This print is a cognate or second impression made from the same matrix as the monotype entitled Children in the Park (Private Collection, CR 1652).  In contrast to most cognates, here the image is quite clear and the colors, while pale, are bright. Children at Play also lacks the line border with which Prendergast typically framed his monotype images. He placed his decorative monogram, very similar to a Japanese "chop," within the image.

Children at Play was probably inspired, like many of Prendergast's early works, by Franklin Park, a large green space that was part of Boston's "green necklace" of parks designed by Frederick Law Olmsted in the late nineteenth century. Until 1896, the artist lived near the park in Roxbury, a Boston suburb. Franklin Park was the setting for many of the artist's images within his "Children at Play" series, some are dated 1895 in the plate.  Many are set in the park's renown commons, which include the monotypes Spring in Franklin Park (TF 1992.106, CR 1646), In the Park (TF1992.86, CR 1642), and three works entitled The Breezy Common (TF 1992.72, CR 1661; TF 1992.73, CR 1657; and TF 1992.74, CR 1658).

In these monotypes Prendergast experimented with his technique through multiple impressions or by combining several images on a single sheet.  He often created his compositions from memory, emphasizing abstract patterns that appealed for their decorative or aesthetic properties rather than for their narrative or reportorial content. For more information, see Maurice Brazil Prendergast, Charles Prendergast: A Catalogue Raisonné (1990), to which the CR numbers for the monotypes noted above refer.

Maurice Prendergast: The Monotypes, William Cooper Procter Art Center, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, May 1–21, 1967, no. 38 (as Children Playing in the Park).

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.]

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.

Le Japonisme en Amérique: oeuvres sur papier, 1880–1930 (Japonisme in America: Works on Paper, 1880–1930), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venues: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, September 15–November 30, 2002.

Davis & Long Company. American Painting. (exh. cat, Davis & Long Company). New York: Davis & Long Company, 1976. Pl. 23 (black and 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, 28, 30, 31, 38, 82; ill. no. 18, p. 83 (color).

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

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-104, p. 213 (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. 1653, p. 599; ill. no. 1653, p. 599 (black & white).