Figures Along the Shore

In a departure from his usual interest in motion generated by active figures and sea breezes, Maurice Prendergast created the effect of eerie stillness in the monotype Figures Along the Shore (CR 1649).  A calm expanse of empty blue ocean dominates the top half of the composition, leaving only a narrow band of pale blue to suggest the sky above a high horizon.  Adults in dark clothing, accompanied by four young girls in pale summer frocks, seem to glide silently past one another along the beach.  The billowing skirts, waving flags, flapping seagulls, and floating balloons that energize many of Prendergast's beach and park scenes are absent here, where the mood is instead serene.  The one visible balloon, closely held by the girl in the left foreground, echoes the effect of hushed restraint.  The time of day may be dusk, which would account for the image's somber range of hues.

  Prendergast often used the monotype as a medium for experiment.  Figures Along the Shore and its more complex companion monotype At the Seashore (TF 1992.69, CR 1648) demonstrate how the artist varied his approach to composition and technique within a theme such as the "Shore Promenade" series.  Both dated 1895 and of approximately the same size, these monotypes combine a reductive use of landscape elements and smooth, almost invisible brushstrokes.  Figures Along the Shore also features the use of a stylus or the end of a brush handle to define the more elaborately rendered dresses, especially the dots on the dress of the girl in the foreground.  As elsewhere in his monotypes, Prendergast deftly wiped away pigment in selected areas both to suggest depth and to balance the composition with areas of light.

  Both Figures Along the Shore and At the Seashore recall the spare aesthetics of Japanese woodblock prints, which greatly inspired both Prendergast and the American expatriate artist James McNeill Whistler.  Prendergast may well have known Whistler's small seascapes, such as A Freshening Breeze (TF 1992.152) and The Sea, Pourville (TF 1992.158), which share with his own monotypes the effect of parallel bands of subtle color to define a landscape composition. For more information on Prendergast’s monotypes, 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.

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

American-English: Paintings, Watercolors and Drawings, Davis & Long Company, New York, New York, November 9–December 3, 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.]

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.

Art Journal 26:3 (Spring 1967): 309. Ill. p. 309 (black & white).

Sotheby's New York, New York (Sale 3807, November 13–14, 1975): lot 505. Ill. lot 505.

Langdale, Cecily. The Monotypes of Maurice Prendergast. (exh. cat., Davis & Long Company). New York: Davis & Long Company, 1979. Text p. 11; ill. no. 33, p. 67 (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. 28, 37, 74; ill. no. 14, p. 75 (color).

Spencer, Harold. "On Some Works by Maurice Prendergast." Bulletin 1985: William Benton Museum of Art, University of Connecticut 13 (1985). Text p. 29.

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. 1649, p. 598; ill. no. 1649, p. 598 (black & white).