Street Scene

The glowing windows of shops and trolley cars on a tree-lined boulevard suggest a twilight setting in Maurice Prendergast's Street Scene (CR 1629). Just as the time of day is indeterminate, the time of year is not clear. The bare tree branches and a fur muff indicate late autumn or early winter, and, fascinatingly, despite the brown monochromatic palette, there is a suggestion of frost created by the artist's expert wiping away of pigment. The monotype's intricacy of design is evident in the one-point perspective that draws the eye to follow the end-to-end trolley cars moving towards a distant tall building, perhaps a church steeple. Along the street's curving row of shops, large glass windows are lit from within and echo the trolley's lighted windows. Rhythms of motion are established by the blocks of receding yellow squares that represent the trolleys' lit windows as well as the diminishing of figures who are hurrying to catch their trolley. The single female commuter in Street Scene suggests that this monotype belongs in the "Solitary Woman" series within the subset that delineates a narrative background.

In his monotypes Prendergast's imaginative powers are matched with his advanced technical skills, producing just enough visual information to suggest a certain scene, but without compromising his overall formal balance of dynamic shapes imposed on a geometrical landscape. In this particular case, the subtle use of color is barely noticed with his judicious placement of black, yellow, blue and two dots of bright orange. To finish this artistic episode, the artist drew his usual line border in brown and added a vertical three-initial monogram. Tellingly, he chose to leave the wide expanse of foreground open—no busy brick pavement design or even one of his modest "oriental chop" styled monograms. This design decision evokes variable contextual circumstances, such as time of day or time of year, and emphasizes the downward sloping hillside.

Although the elaborate technique and careful composition of Street Scene indicate a studio production, Prendergast would have encountered such settings in the Boston neighborhood of Roxbury, where he lived between 1895 and 1896. The neighborhood boasted electric trolley service by 1887, and within four years, the Dudley Street Station on Commerce Street was a major commercial center. The artist typically confined his depiction of Roxbury to scenes of parks and children at play. This image, in contrast, emphasizes its bustling commercial character. 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 Galleries, New York, New York, December 8–31, 1936 (perhaps as no. 25).

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

Drawings by Maurice Brazil Prendergast (1861–1924), Davis Galleries, New York, New York, October 22–November 9, 1963.

Maurice Prendergast: The Monotypes, William Cooper Procter Art Center, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, May 1–21, 1967. [exh. cat.]

The Monotype: An Edition of One, Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, Washington, D.C. (organizer). Venue: William Benton Museum of Art, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, October 14–November 12, 1972. [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.]

[possibly exhibited] 19th Century American Art, Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, Arkansas, 1982.

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.

American Painting. (exh. cat., Davis & Long Company). New York: Davis & Long Company, 1976. Ill. no. 27 (black & white).

Langdale, Cecily. The Monotypes of Maurice Prendergast. (exh. cat., Davis & Long Company). New York: Davis & Long Company, 1979. Ill. no. 48, p. 83 (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, 37, 96, 98; ill. no. 25, p. 97 (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. 1629, p. 591; ill. no. 1629, p. 591 (black & white).