Fall 2022 - The Figure

I N T H E M I X
32
Sheet:
11 × 15 1/4”
Like Potthast, the American artist Maurice Prendergast
(1858–1924) was also drawn to scenes of leisure at the shoreline.
Although born in Newfoundland, he moved with his family
to Boston and later studied in Paris from 1891 to 1895. While
there, he assimilated many Post-Impressionist techniques and
developed his own decorative style using patches of color.
After returning to Boston, he produced a series of enchanting
watercolors along the seashore. Prendergast returned often to
drawing the picturesque town of Marblehead and its surroundings,
observing people on holiday. This watercolor, Marblehead
Rocks, Massachusetts (c. 1905–8), depicts a procession of
figures strolling along the rocky shore while boats sail in the
distance. It was displayed in the first exhibition of The Eight—a
group that championed a progressive approach to art—in
1908 and in the prestigious Armory Show in New York in 1913.
Though these two works by Potthast and Prendergast
portray similar scenes, they differ in their stylistic approach.
Whereas Potthast’s loosely brushed figures are a bit more
defined, those by Prendergast appear as a mosaic of bright
pools of color. Together, they demonstrate how American
artists applied what they had learned from their European
counterparts to create their own individualized styles. These
two works are recent gifts to the Museum from the collection
of Nancy Hart Glanville Jewell, a preeminent collector of
American art and a longtime supporter of the Museum. The
addition of the Glanville Collection uniquely expands the
Museum’s permanent collection of American art.