Monte Pincio

Monte Pincio (CR 1699) is one of the few Roman works that resulted from Maurice Prendergast's first visit to Italy, in 1898–1899. A large bright-green umbrella above a red-wheeled carriage dominates the scene. In the background, a procession of clerics identically dressed in red robes and large black hats provides a sense of movement. Framing the image is a gray border in which the artist inscribed, in the plate, "Monte Pincio" and "The Pincian Hill" to note the precise setting of the scene. Above these words he drew his initials in the plate, in a space made by lightly wiping some of the pigment.

Rome's Pincian Hill was a fashionable place for promenading and was enjoyed by all strata of society, residents and tourists alike. From a high bluff, it descends into the city to become part of the Via del Corso. The colorful ecclesiastical garb of various Catholic seminarians, such as the vivid red worn by Germans and Hungarians students, seen here, drew Prendergast's eye for color contrast, as did the many fashionably attired women he would have seen promenading on the hill.

  Close examination reveals that Prendergast printed Monte Pincio on Japanese paper embedded with mica, which contributes its luminosity. Prendergast also manipulated the rich colors of the monotype by applying watercolor to the impression to "drab" or mute the red wall in the background. Watercolor can also be detected on the road beneath the horse's legs and in the body of the carriage. Such painstaking experimental additions to the print after it was pulled, a practice the artist followed in several other cases, defy the convention of the monotype as a medium of spontaneous creation.

  Prendergast was fascinated by the visual cacophony of strollers moving along the Pincian Hill's switch-back carriageway, which he featured not only in this monotype but also in three related watercolors: Pincian Hill, Rome (Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.), Afternoon, Pincian Hill (Honolulu Academy of Arts), and Monte Pincio, Rome (TF 1999.117, CR 746). All three watercolors repeat the motif of the horse and carriage seen against the diagonally sloping walls of the steep road. The rich and varied detail of these images distinguishes them from this monotype, with its simplified rendering of the subject. Whether the monotype or one of these watercolors was Prendergast's first image of Monte Pincio is unknown. 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] Exhibition of Unusual Monotypes by Contemporary Artists, Ehrich Print Galleries, New York, New York, March 17–April 5, 1919 (perhaps as no. 35, The Pincian).

American Master Prints IV: Bicentennial Collection 1728-1910, Associated American Artists, Inc., New York, New York, March 22–April 17, 1976. [exh. cat.]

Maurice Prendergast: Art of Impulse and Color, University of Maryland Art Gallery, College Park, Maryland (organizer). Venues: University of Maryland Art Gallery, College Park, Maryland, September 1–October 6, 1976; University Art Museum, University of Texas, Austin, Texas, October 17–November 21, 1976; Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, Iowa, December 1, 1976–January 2, 1977; Columbus Gallery of Fine Art, Columbus, Ohio, January 14–February 20, 1977; Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, March 1–April 15, 1977. [exh. cat.]

Maurice Prendergast, Davis & Long Company, New York, New York, May 4–28, 1977.

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.]

The Work of Charles and Maurice Prendergast, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: 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). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, April 26, 1996–January 5, 1997.

Prendergast in Italy, Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, Massachusetts, July 18–September 20, 2009; The Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Italy, October 9, 2009–January 3, 2010; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, February 14–May 9, 2010. [exh. cat.]

American Master Prints IV: Bicentennial Collection 1728–1910. (exh. cat., Associated American Artists Inc.). New York: Associated American Artists Inc., 1976. Ill. no. 65.

Green, Eleanor. Maurice Prendergast: Art of Impulse and Color. (exh. cat., University of Maryland Art Gallery). College Park, Maryland: University of Maryland, 1976. Text p. 95; ill. no. 23, p. 96 (black & white).

Langdale, Cecily. The Monotypes of Maurice Prendergast. (exh. cat., Davis & Long Company). New York: Davis & Long Company, 1979. Text p. 12; ill. no. 77, p. 113 (black & white).

Goodman, Calvin J. "Monotype: A Singular Art Form." American Artist 45:462 (January 1981): 58–63. Ill. p. 62 (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. 34, 124, 146; ill. no. 39, p. 125 (color).

Sokol, David M. "The Terra Museum of American Art, Evanston, Illinois." The Magazine Antiques 126:5 (November 1984): 1156–69. Pl. XXIV, p. 1166 (color).

"Americans at Play." Post-Bulletin [Rochester, Minnesota] (December 13, 1986). Ill. (as The Pincian Hill).

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-114, p. 223 (color).

Sozanski, Edward. "Delicate Images in Monotypes by Prendergast." Philadelphia Inquirer (December 10, 1987): C: 7. Ill. p. 7.

"Maurice Prendergast." Members' Calendar [Los Angeles County Museum of Art] 25:12/26:1 (December 1987/January 1988): 8–9. Ill. p. 8.

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. 1699, p. 612; ill. no. 1699, p. 612 (black & white).

Mathews, Nancy Mowll with Elizabeth Kennedy. Prendergast in Italy. (exh. cat. also translated into Italian as Prendergast in Italia"; all pages are identical) London: Merrell in association with Williams College Museum of Art and the Terra Foundation for American Art, 2009. Text p. 104, 182 (checklist); fig. 14, p. 105 (color). Mathews, Nancy Mowll. Maurice Prendergast in Italy American Art Review (February 2010): 84–89. Ill., p. 87 (color).