On the Corso, Rome

During his first trip to Italy, in 1898–1899, Maurice Prendergast visited popular tourist destinations while continuing his habit of drawing fashionably dressed ladies. In On the Corso, Rome (CR 1702), he portrayed an elegant shopper strolling along the Via del Corso, one of Rome's most famous shopping streets. Motion, more than setting, is the focus of this colored print, however. The woman's forward movement is emphasized by the retreating horse and buggy, whose large red wheels seem to spin. A row of lamp posts topped by circular bowls and the pinkish-orange glow of the setting sun establish this as an evening scene. Prendergast rendered lamps, flags, banners, and awnings as patterns of stripes and spots, boldly transforming them into a field of flat shapes of pure color by means of his characteristic subtractive wiping technique. The artist's sensitivity to the nuances of movement sounds a particularly modern note.

Along with his initials, Prendergast inscribed the plate "Via Belle: Corso/ROME," to precisely locate the scene. With "Belle," he punned on the Italian word delle, meaning “of,” thus referring to the beautiful woman at the center of his image. Although the artist was long believed to use oil paint, the grainy surface clearly visible in the magnification of On the Corso, Rome is the result of the use of printer's ink, rather than the usual oil paint, as the medium of this monotype. Equally experimental is Prendergast's choice of a fabric matrix, rather than the usual metal plate, which could have produced the textured effect seen in the monotype's lower left corner.

Prendergast's Italian monotypes feature particularly complex surface design and technique. In its focus on motion, On the Corso, Rome finds a counterpart in the equally experimental Bella Regazza: Merceria, Venice (TF 1992.71, CR 1703), in which the background geometric grid offers a foil to the figures' curvilinear forms.  The works Prendergast made in Italy now in the Terra's Collection also include the watercolors The Grand Canal, Venice (TF 1999.123) and Monte Pincio, Rome (TF 1999.117); the latter relates to the monotype Monte Pincio (TF 1992.94, CR 1699). The remaining Italian monotypes connected to Venice are: Festa del Redentore (TF 1992.83, CR 1708), Venetian Well (TF 1992.115, CR 1705), Venetian Court (TF 1999.124, CR 1706), and Venice (TF 1992.114, CR 1707).  Other monotypes portraying chic women strolling in the evening are Lady with a Muff (TF 1992.91, CR 1726) and Lady in Hat and Green Cape (TF 1992.88, CR 1733). For more information, see Maurice Brazil Prendergast, Charles Prendergast: A Catalogue Raisonné (1990), to which the CR numbers for the monotypes noted above refer.

Monotypes by Maurice Prendergast, Kraushaar Galleries, New York, New York, May 7–31, 1956.

Maurice Prendergast 1869–1924, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts (organizer). Venues: Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Massachusetts, October 26–December 4, 1960; Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut, December 29, 1960–February 5, 1961; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York, February 21–April 2, 1961; California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, California, April 22–June 3, 1961; Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio, June 20–July 30, 1961. [exh. cat.]

Maurice Prendergast: The Monotypes, William Cooper Procter Art Center, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, May 1–21, 1967, no. 19 (as On the Corso).

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.]

Rhys, Hedley Howell. Maurice Prendergast, 1859–1924. (exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts). Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Harvard University Press, 1960. Text p. 105 (checklist); ill. no. 132, p. 152 (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, 35, 126; ill. no. 40, p. 127 (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. 1702, p. 614; ill. no. 1702, p. 614 (black & white).

Wisneski, Kurt. Monotype/Monoprint: History and Techniques. Ithaca, New York: Bullbrier Press, 1995. Fig. 25, p. 49 (color).

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. 6, p. 102 (color).