Going to School

The pale surface of Maurice Prendergast's monotype Going to School (CR1606) is a clue to its state as the second impression or cognate printed from a matrix from which the more colorful Children in Street (TF1992.77, CR 1605) was first produced.  Prendergast was intrigued with the complex and colorful composition of Children in Street and produced a second print.  The faint appearance of forms in Going to School indicates that the artist did not manipulate the image by adding new pigment to the matrix between the two impressions.

In comparison with Children in Street, here the frocks of the running girls in the foreground are muted, and the figures dressed in black in the first print appear gray.  Lost contrasts of color and texture flatten the image, eliminating the energizing movement of Children in Street.  The vertical composition, abstract patterning, and restricted range of delicate color indicate the appreciation of Japanese prints by Prendergast but their subtle charm is diminished in Going to School.  Furthermore, its blurry image does not convey the technical expertise that is evident in the original monotype.  Yet the features of the two girls in the foreground are still readable in their ghostly state, suggesting that the artist used pigment, not graphite, his usual medium for detailing faces. Prendergast's simplified monogram in the lower-left corner is so faint to be almost indistinguishable.

An informal series of monotypes can be grouped together 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).

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.

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

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; The 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 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.

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

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, 64, 66, 96; ill. no. 10, p. 67 (color).

Heimann, Nora M. "Singular Impressions." Arts [The Magazine for Members of The Minneapolis Society of Fine Arts] 9:12 (December 1986): 20–23. Text p. 21.

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. 1606, p. 585; ill. no. 1606, p. 585 (black & white).