Bareback Rider

The monotype Bareback Rider (CR 1593) is one of Maurice Prendergast's rare treatments of an interior scene.  At the center of the vertical image is an elaborately costumed and coiffed circus equestrienne balancing on the back of a white horse. Another performer and a clown in red, who grasps a ring for the horse to jump through, stand on either side. The varied ink marks that yielded the monotype's lively surface reveal the artist's intuitive understanding of how to create forms by selectively wiping away the ink with a cloth. Using a straightedge to make the outside edges perfectly straight, Prendergast framed the image in a black border, presumably to cover the ragged ends of his brush strokes. Sometime after the sheet was pulled, the work was signed in brown chalk in the lower left corner, but not necessarily by Prendergast himself. Bareback Rider retains its original simple gold scooped frame carved by the artist's brother Charles.

From the early days of the circus, equestrian acts formed the core of the program. In the late nineteenth century, they featured female riders in elegant costumes. Beautiful and highly skilled, the equestriennes performed complicated tricks, sometimes involving other performers and/or props such as paper-covered rings. Bareback Rider is one of eleven monotypes in Prendergast's oeuvre dedicated to the circus, the only subject the artist treated exclusively in this medium. They include, in addition to Bareback Rider, Circus Scene with Horse (TF 1992.78, CR 1590), and Nouveau Cirque (TF 1992.95, CR 1594). This work's vertical orientation, emphasized by both the columns and the central grouping of horse and equestrienne, as well as the slightly tipped perspective and elevated horizon line, are reminiscent of the Japanese woodblock prints that informed Prendergast's monotype aesthetic. For more information, see Maurice Brazil Prendergast, Charles Prendergast: A Catalogue Raisonné (1990), to which the CR numbers for the monotypes noted above refer.

Drawings by Maurice Brazil Prendergast (1861–1924), Davis Galleries, New York, New York, February 5–March 2, 1963.

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). Venues: 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). Venues: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, April 26, 1996–January 5, 1997.

Un regard américain sur Paris (An American Glance at Paris), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venues: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 11–October 31, 1997.

The People Work: American Perspectives, 1840–1940 (Le Travail à l'oeuvre: les artistes américains 1840–1940), Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venues: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, March 15–May 25, 2003; Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, June 8–August 17, 2003. [exh. cat.]

Le Temps des loisirs : peintures américaines (At Leisure: American Paintings), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venues: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–October 31, 2008.

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. 26, 31, 33, 35, 84, 86; ill. no. 20, p. 87 (color).

Stevens, Elisabeth. "Monotypes Have Lyricism." Baltimore Sun (March 8, 1985): B: 1, 4. Text p. 4B.

Heimann, Nora M. "Singular Impressions." Arts [The Magazine for Members of The Minneapolis Society of Fine Arts] 9:12 (December 1986): 20–3. Ill. p. 22 (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. 1593, p. 583; ill. no. 1593, p. 583 (black & white).

Reymond, Nathalie. Un regard américain sur Paris. (An American Glance at Paris). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1997. Text p. 84; ill. p. 82 (color).