Lady with a Muff

Maurice Prendergast carefully inscribed his last name and 1900 (the "9" is backwards) in the matrix of the monotype Lady with a Muff (CR 1726).  The woman’s muff, her elaborately decorated hat, and her jacket's fur collar, pulled up against her neck, are all tinted orange, effectively contrasting with the deep hunter green of her walking ensemble.  The background's drab color suggests a twilight setting, with either a hazy setting sun or an early rising moon lighting her way.  The woman's walking costume is embellished by a crisp white shirt, white buttons, and a white filmy petticoat—all created by wiping away the green pigment.  Grasping her skirt with her gloved hand, the woman reveals her frothy white underskirt, implying a brisk pace.

Fashionably dressed young women appear frequently in Prendergast's art and are prominent in his monotypes throughout the ten years he produced such prints.  Many elements in Lady with a Muff are selected from the artist's list of fashionable accessories: a walking outfit with a fitted jacket, gloves, a fur muff, and an elaborately decorated hat.  But most importantly, the subject of this monotype is illustrative of the artist's demand for a sense of movement, typically achieved with petticoats emerging from swishing skirts.

Lady with a Muff exemplifies a specific type from the "Solitary Woman" series in which the background provides a narrative setting.  Other types in the series employ drab monochromatic color or are unworked with the figure appearing to float on the surface.  Critically, the artist's earliest monotypes, identified by his brother Charles Prendergast, portray two types from the "Solitary Woman" series: Lady in a Pale Green Dress, Blue Hat and Scarf (Private Collection, CR 1563) has a drab overall colored background and Esplanade (TF 1999.109, CR 1564) has a narrative scene.  It is useful to compare the spatial depth of Lady with a Muff, provided by its narrative setting, to the floating figure in Lady with Handkerchief (TF 1992.90, CR 1571).

Lady with a Muff is encased in a typical hand-carved Prendergast frame with a scooped profile that was painted with red bole clay and water-gilded with gold leaf.  As both brothers made frames, it is almost always impossible to identify with certainty the author of an original Prendergast frame. For more information, see Maurice Brazil Prendergast, Charles Prendergast: A Catalogue Raisonné (1990), to which the CR numbers for the monotypes noted above refer.

[possibly exhibited] Monotypes in Color by Maurice Prendergast, Kraushaar Art Galleries, New York, New York, December 8–31, 1936 (perhaps as no. 16).

[possibly exhibited] Special Exhibition of Monotypes by Maurice Prendergast, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., March 28–May 9, 1937 (perhaps as no. 12).

The Prendergasts: Retrospective Exhibition of the Work of Maurice and Charles Prendergast, Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, September 24–November 6, 1938. [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.

A Place on the Avenue: Terra Museum of American Art Celebrates 15 Years in Chicago, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, November 16, 2002–February 16, 2003 (on exhibit extended run: November 2, 2002–March 2, 2003).

Expanded Galleries of American Art with Loans from the Terra Foundation for American Art Collection, [Gallery 163] The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, April 15–July 2005.

Christie's New York, New York (Sale 5001, September 24–25, 1980): lot 439. Ill. lot 439.

"International Auction Review." Print Collector's Newsletter 11 (November–December 1980): 188–89. Ill. p. 188.

Reif, Rita. "Auctions: Price of Prints Is On the Rise." New York Times (July 31, 1981): C: 19. Text p. 19.

"Modern Prints." Christie's Review of the Season (1981): 144. Text p. 144.

The Magazine Antiques 72:2 (August 1982): 240. Ill. p. 240 (color).

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. 27, 31, 134, 136; ill. no. 45, p. 137 (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. 1726, p. 621; ill. no. 1726, p. 621 (black & white).