Skipping Rope

Against a brownish-red brick wall, perhaps in a school yard, six girls are at play in Skipping Rope (CR 1610) by Maurice  Prendergast.  The careful depiction of the individual bricks belies the idea of the monotype as a spontaneously created artwork.  Ground is distinguished from wall by the arrangement of bricks in vertical and horizontal patterns, respectively, as well as by the slight variation in the colors of the two areas.  Adding to the complexity of the composition are the differences in the tints of the girls' dresses.  Their hems ripple with their movement as they jump, and one holds on to her hat.  In contrast, the two standing girls on either side, with their large black hats and straight hanging skirts, seem firmly grounded.  Prendergast used a stylus or the end of a brush handle to scrape through the pigment to selectively outline the figures and bricks and to depict the suspended rope.  After pulling the impression, he added facial features in graphite.  He may also have reinforced or altered the print using watercolor, as he did for Monte Pincio (TF 1992.94, CR 1699).

There are two versions of Skipping Rope from the same matrix, and interestingly, the first print (Collection Paul  Mellon, CR 1609) was bought or given to Prendergast's friend, artist Daphne Dunbar, who also owned Woman on Ship Deck (TF 1992.120, CR 1586) and Evening, South Boston Pier (TF 1992.82, CR 1684).  The brick patterning is a motif that the artist explored in the work dated 1895, Children in Red Capes (TF 1992.76, CR 1614), which perhaps was the experimental platform for other monotypes.  A more direct comparison is Jumping Rope (TF 1992.87, CR 1612), whose imaginative background grid is a conceptual tour de force.  The variety of subjects and styles within the "Children at Play" series illustrates Prendergast’s own imaginative play. 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] Water Color Club: Eleventh Annual Exhibition, Boston Art Club, Boston, Massachusetts, February 24–March 12, 1898 (perhaps as no. 87).

[possibly exhibited] Exhibition of Watercolors and Monotypes in Color by Maurice B. Prendergast, Macbeth Gallery, New York, New York, March 9–24, 1900 (perhaps as no. 39).

[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. 1).

[possibly exhibited] 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 (perhaps as no. 111). [exh. cat.]

American Painting, Davis & Long Company, New York, New York, October 6–27, 1976. [exh. cat.]

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.]

A Proud Heritage: Two Centuries of American Art, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, April 21–June 21, 1987. [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.

Langdale, Cecily. The Monotypes of Maurice Prendergast. (exh. cat., Davis & Long Company). New York: Davis & Long Company, 1979. Text pp. 11, 13, 56; ill. no. 23, p. 57 (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. 25, 30, 35, 37, 39, 70, 72; ill. no. 12, p. 71 (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. 22.

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-102, p. 211 (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. 1610, p. 586; ill. no. 1610, p. 586 (black & white).