Maurice Brazil Prendergast
American, born Canada, 1858 - 1924Bathers, ca. 1918-23
On view
Oil on canvas
Dimensions17 1/2 x 24 1/8
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. William L. Richards, by exchange, 1993.33
Maurice Prendergast's art represents a bridge between Impressionism and revolutionary trends of twentieth-century modernism. An artist of considerable originality, Prendergast absorbed a wide range of influences as an art student in Paris during the early 1890s, in addition to developing his own innovative artistic concepts. During this time period, he was also introduced to the work of Vuillard and Bonnard and was inspired by their flat decorative use of color.
Prendergast specialized in picturesque scenes of people at leisure— people depicted promenading, wading, and swimming are among his most favored themes. Bathers depicts a New England coastal scene in Prendergast's characteristic manner, with brilliant colors and fragmentary brushwork that create a world poised between familiar representation and pure abstraction.
