Primrose Hill

The figure of a well-dressed girl in the foreground of Primrose Hill (CR 1619) represents a version of a signature motif in Maurice Prendergast's monotypes of children playing.  The artist's deft wiping away of pigment created a white dress charmingly decorated with red dots that is enhanced by an elaborate hat of ribbons and a brooch.  The storefronts' meticulously depicted glass window panes evidence the artist's technical prowess in representing reflected light.  At the bottom of the print's greenish-brown line border, which surrounds the image, Prendergast inscribed "Primrose Hill" and his name.  A "Primrose Hill" suite of monotypes is a distinct grouping within the artist's extant oeuvre.

  Fashionable Primrose Hill, a northern London suburb, is a park whose high mound permits a clear view of the city's center.  The urban village is filled with shops and Victorian houses.  Prendergast's only documented trip to London was the summer of 1886 although some scholars speculate that he also visited during his residence in France between 1891 and 1894.  The inscription "Primrose Hill" found on several monotypes is the only proof of the artist's acquaintance with the site.  The image hints at the artist's awareness of the paintings of quaint shop fronts by American expatriate artist James McNeill Whistler such as A Chelsea Shop (TF 1992.148).  Prendergast emulated Whistler's depictions of a flat wall pierced by windows and doors to create an abstract pattern that undulates across the flat surface of the paper in Primrose Hill, as well as Bella Regazza: Merceria, Venice (TF 1992.71, CR 1703), Street Scene (TF 1992.107, CR 1624), and other monotypes.

  The artist decided Primrose Hill was worthy of a second impression or cognate from the original matrix and Primrose Hill No. 2 (TF 1992.99, CR 1620) was produced.  Other examples of monotype cognates in the Terra Foundation collection include the pairs Children in Street (TF 1992.77, CR 1605) and Going to School (TF1992.85, CR 1606), and The Breezy Common (TF 1992.73, CR 1657) and its cognate of the same title (TF 1992.74, CR 1658).

  In the brochure accompanying a major Prendergast watercolor and monotype exhibition in Detroit and Cincinnati in 1901, there were several monotypes entitled "Primrose Hill."  Importantly, correspondence between the Detroit Museum of Art and the artist confirms that the artist framed his works for exhibition.  The Terra Foundation collection's Primrose Hill retains its hand carved, slender scooped-profile frame, the preferred style for the monotypes.  Significantly the frame could have been produced by either of the Prendergast brothers although the younger brother Charles Prendergast is closely associated with frame making.  It unknown if this frame was created for the 1901 exhibition or, possibly, made later by Charles in 1938 when the monotype was purchased. 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] Special Exhibition of Water Colors and Monotypes by Maurice B. Prendergast, Detroit Museum of Art, Detroit, Michigan, November 1901 (perhaps as nos. 46, 47 or 48).

[possibly exhibited] Special Exhibition of Monotypes by Maurice Brazil Prendergast, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., March 28–May 9, 1937 (perhaps as no. 27).

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.

The Decorative Form: The Aesthetic Movement, Arts & Crafts and the Asian Influence in American Art, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, September 16–December 5, 1999.

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. 12, 27, 35, 38, 60, 63, 64, 68; ill. no. 7, p. 61 (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.

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

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. 1619, p. 589; ill. no. 1619, p. 589 (black & white).

Whistler, Sargent and Steer: Impressionists in London from Tate Collections. (exh. cat., Frist Center for the Visual Arts). Nashville, Tennessee: Frist Center for the Visual Arts, 2002. Text p. 18; ill. fig. 10, p. 19 (black & white).