Children in Street

Energetic girls in elaborate beribboned hats, black stockings, white pinafores, and flowing skirts dominate Maurice Prendergast's monotype Children in Street (CR 1605). Several solid black figures and others in simple black and white, who are presumably boys, complete the zigzag arrangement of the figures, a serpentine design often employed by the artist.  Their diminishing size draws the viewer's eye up the picture while adding another component of motion.  In the lower left corner, Prendergast's simple vertical three-initial monogram fills the empty space completing the curved emphasis of the composition.  Absent is the line border, which the artist typically used to frame the image.  Instead, he used a straight edge, possibly tape, to neatly define the limits of the image.

The influence of Japanese prints is exemplified by the vertically of the composition, its abstract patterning and the simplification of its range of colors.  A tipped-up roadway, whose paving stones are suggested by the judicious wiping of pigment, provide a backdrop for the dozen or so young girls as they gaily interact with each other.  Prendergast's skill is seen not only in creating form through subtractive techniques of wiping minute areas of pigment from the matrix but also in defining shapes with a pointed stylus.  The removal of color creates white lines, which is readily apparent in the children's forms, the trees' leaves, and, most brilliantly, in the sidewalk's brick pavement that flanks the road.

Playing youngsters, especially running girls, figure in many of Prendergast's works, particularly in monotypes, and form an informal series that can be grouped as "Children at Play."  Examples that demonstrate the artist's use of different stylistic treatments of a single theme in the Terra Foundation collection are Children at Play (TF 1992.75, CR 1653), Jumping Rope (TF1992.87, CR 1612), and Reflection (TF 1992.104, CR 1667).

Prendergast experimented not only in his treatment of the image but also in the printing by producing a second impression from the same plate, or a cognate. Going to School (TF1992.85, CR 1606) justifies the alternative term for such a print as a ghost, due to its pale color.  Other examples of cognates in the Terra Foundation collection are the pairs Primrose Hill (TF 1992.98, CR 1619) and Primrose Hill No. 2 (TF 1992.99, CR 1620), and The Breezy Common (TF 1992.73, CR 1657) and its cognate of the same title (TF 1992.74, CR 1658). 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 Monotypes: 100 Years, Marilyn Pearl Gallery, New York, New York, January 6–February 1, 1979. [exh. cat.]

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

Selections from the Collection of Mimi and Sanford Feld, Museum of Art, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, March 22–May 24, 1981; Aspen Center for the Visual Arts, Aspen, Colorado, October 9–November 22, 1981. [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 Decorative Form: The Aesthetic Movement, Arts & Crafts and the Asian Influence in American Art, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venues: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, September 16–December 5, 1999.

On Process: The American Print, Technique Examined, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venues: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, January 13–March 2, 2001.

Langdale, Cecily. The Monotypes of Maurice Prendergast. (exh. cat., Davis & Long Company). New York: Davis & Long Company, 1979. Text pp. 9, 11, 13; ill. no. 15, p. 49 (black & white).

Selections from the Collection of Mimi and Sanford Feld. (exh. cat., Museum of Art, Pennsylvania State University). University Park, Pennsylvania: Museum of Art, The Pennsylvania State University, 1981. Ill. no. 23.

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, 38, 66, 96; ill. no. 25, p. 97 (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. 1605, p. 585; ill. no. 1605, p. 585 (black & white).