Lighthouse

Unusual for a Maurice Prendergast picture, both girls and boys are seen at play in the monotype Lighthouse (CR 1762), where they engage directly with each other.  Amusingly, in the foreground a dark-haired boy and a girl with long blond hair seem to be locked in an embrace or wrestling with each other, while her straw hat, its ribbons flying, appears to blow away to the right.  Also blown away by the vigorous winds are a boy’s straw hat and a girl's red ball, adding to the dynamism of the scene.  The chaotic movements of a running girl and chasing boy further add to the flowing motion of the entire scene.  The distinctive lighthouse and buildings on the opposite shore could be a particular location or a memory embellished by the artist.

From the matrix from which he first printed Lighthouse, Prendergast produced a cognate, or second impression, titled Beach Scene with Lighthouse (Metropolitan Museum of Art, CR 1763).  Like other monotypes such as Monte Pincio (TF 1992.94, CR 1699), Lighthouse was printed on Japanese paper embedded with mica flecks that create a subtle sheen; the printed image was then extensively reworked in watercolor, while its cognate apparently was not.  Prendergast explored the lighthouse motif across several media, for example in drawings in his sketchbooks and in an oil painting, Summer Day (The Lighthouse).  This monotype is a late version of the theme of "Children at Play."

After 1901, Prendergast eschewed the glowing transparency typical of his earlier monotypes for the more active broken surface of his paintings, such as Salem Willows (TF 1999.120).  The artist stopped making monotypes in 1902 and redirected his activity from watercolor to oil painting.  When he stopped making monotypes, he also stopped exhibiting them.  Surprisingly, his innovative approach of creating monotypes in color left no trace in other artists' monotypes. Few early twentieth-century artists produced monotypes and most of them used presses, eliminating the "hand-crafted" quality that is obvious in Prendergast's monotypes. For more information, see Maurice Brazil Prendergast, Charles Prendergast: A Catalogue Raisonné (1990), to which the CR numbers for the monotypes noted above refer.

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; The 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 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.

Maurice Prendergast, Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, Massachusetts (organizer). Venues: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California, February 21–April 22, 1991; The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., May 18–August 25, 1991. [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. Maurice Prendergast: By the Sea, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine (organizer). Venue: Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine, June 29–October 13, 2013. [exh. cat.]

Langdale, Cecily. The Monotypes of Maurice Prendergast. (exh. cat., Davis & Long Company). New York: Davis & Long Company, 1979. Text pp. 9, 11, 14; ill. no. 99, p. 30 (color), no. 99, p. 135 (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, 32, 40, 146; ill. no. 50, p. 147 (color).

"Prendergast Monotypes to be at Whitney Museum." Antiques & the Arts Weekly (February 27, 1987): 13. Text p. 13.

Langdale, Cecily. "The Late Watercolor/Pastels of Maurice Prendergast." The Magazine Antiques 132 (November 1987): 1084–95. Text p. 1089.

Mathews, Nancy Mowll. Maurice Prendergast. (exh. cat., Williams College Museum of Art). Munich, Germany, and Williamstown, Massachusetts: Prestel-Verlag and The President and Trustees of Williams College, 1990. Pl. 127, p. 172 (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. 1762, p. 634; ill. no. 1762, p. 634 (black & white).

Homann, Joachim, Trevor J. Fairbrother, Nancy Mowill Mathews, Joseph J. Rishel and Richard J. Wattenmaker. Maurice Prendergast: By the Sea. (exh. cat., Bowdoin College Museum of Art). Brunswick, Maine: Bowdoin College Museum of Art and DelMonico Books, an imprint of Prestel Publishing, Munich, London and New York, 2013. Text pp. 10, 167; pl. 26, pp. 64–65 (color).