Maurice Brazil Prendergast (1859-1924)
Maurice Brazil Prendergast (1859-1924)

Waterfall

Details
Maurice Brazil Prendergast (1859-1924)
Waterfall
signed 'Prendergast' (lower left)
oil on canvas
24¼ x 20¼ in. (61.5 x 51.2 cm.)
Provenance
The artist.
Carroll Galleries, New York, 1915.
John Quinn, acquired from the above, 1915.
Sale: American Art Association, New York, Paintings and Sculptures -- The Renowned Collection of Modern and Ultra-Modern Art Formed by the Late John Quinn, 9 February 1927, no. 490.
Kraushaar Galleries, New York, 1927.
Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, New York, acquired from the above, 1927.
The Museum of Modern Art, by gift from the above, 1935.
Kraushaar Galleries, New York, 1945.
Dr. and Mrs. Paul Todd Makler, Merion, Pennsylvania, 1957.
Martha Jackson, New York, 1966.
M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., New York, 1966.
Jules Brassner, New York, 1973.
Mr. and Mrs. Daniel R. Goldenson, Stockton, New Jersey, 1975.
R.H. Love Galleries, Chicago, Illinois.
Stegner Collection, 1982.
Hammer Galleries, New York, 1984.
Jules Brassner.
Pfeil Collection, by 1992.
Joan Michelman, New York.
Acquired by the present owner from the above, 1996.
Literature
F. Watson, ed., The John Quinn Collection of Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings and Sculpture, Huntington, New York, 1926, pp. 25, 178, illustrated (as Figure Study)
F. Watson, "The John Quinn Collection," The Arts, February 1926, p. 91
"Paintings Sold at Auction," American Art Annual, 1927, pp. 380-385; 384
"Sale of the Quinn Collection is Completed," Art News, February 1927, p. 11
"Whitney Museum Opens Prendergast Memorial Display," New York Herald Tribune, February 1934, p. 21
H.H. Rhys, "Maurice B. Prendergast," Maurice Prendergast 1859-1924, Boston, Massachusetts, 1960, p. 52
R.J. Wattenmaker, Puvis de Chavannes and the Modern Tradition, Ontario, Canada, 1975, p. 192
J. Zilczer, The Noble Buyer: John Quinn, Patron of the Avant Garde, Washington, D.C., 1978, p. 178
C. Clark, N.M. Matthews and G. Owens, Maurice Brazil Prendergast and Charles Prendergast: A Catalogue Raisonné, Williamstown, Massachusetts, 1990, no. 357, p. 285, illustrated
C. Forbes, "The Forbes Magazine Collection," American Art Review, June 1999, pp. 128-141; 136
Exhibited
New York, Carroll Galleries, Paintings in Oil and Watercolor by Maurice Prendergast, 1915, no. 6
San Francisco, California, Panama-Pacific International Exposition, 1915
New York, Museum of Modern Art, Summer Exhibition: Paintings and Sculpture, June-October 1932
New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Prendergast Memorial Exhibition, February-March 1934, no. 42
New York, Museum of Modern Art, on extended loan, 1935-1945
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Maurice Prendergast Retrospective Exhibition, October-December 1960, no. 22, illustrated (This exhibition also traveled to: Hartford, Connecticut, Wadsworth Atheneum; New York, Whitney Museum of American Art; San Francisco, California, California Palace of the Legion of Honor; and Cleveland, Ohio, Cleveland Museum of Art)
Southampton, New York, Parrish Art Museum, Exhibition of "The Eight", August-September 1974
New York, Knoedler Galleries, Paintings and Watercolors by Maurice Prendergast, November 1974, no. 39
College Park, Maryland, University of Maryland Art Gallery, Maurice Prendergast Retrospective, September-October 1976, no. 68, illustrated (This exhibition also traveled to: Austin, Texas, University of Texas Art Museum; Des Moines, Iowa, Des Moines Art Center; Columbus, Ohio, Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts; and Ithaca, New York, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University)
New York, Hammer Galleries, The Gallery Collection: 19th and 20th Century American and European Paintings, Summer 1984, illustrated
Columbus, Georgia, The Columbus Museum of Art, Masterworks of American Impressionism from the Pfeil Collection, 1992, no. 62, illustrated (This exhibition traveled extensively to venues throughout the United States)
New York, The Forbes Magazine Galleries, 200 Years of American Art from the Forbes Magazine Collection, May-September 1999, no. 39
Sale room notice
Please note that the correct estimate for this lot is $200,000-300,000.

Lot Essay

Painted circa 1911, Waterfall was executed during the last decade of Prendergast's career. During this time, he had developed a highly personal, innovative style of painting, strongly influenced by French Post-Impressionists such as Pierre Bonnard and Edouard Vuillard. As indicated in his letters, he also found profound inspiration in the work of Cezanne, Matisse, Renoir and the Fauves. Nancy Mathews describes the paintings of the artist's later period, "The art that he produced within this context drew on both the art and the theories formulated in Europe which were filtered through American sensibilities. Prendergast, as an artist open to and eager for the 'new impulse' represents the aspirations and achievements of his age." (C. Clark, N.M. Mathews and G. Owens, Maurice Brazil Prendergast and Charles Prendergast: A Catalogue Raisonné, Williamstown, Massachusetts, 1990, p.45)

Prendergast's interest in the tactile properties of oil is evident in the heavily encrusted surfaces of his late paintings in which thickly applied layers of contrasting pigments create a brightly-hued, tapestried effect. The artist's color scheme is applied in a variety of brushstrokes, a departure from his earlier preference for consistent brushwork within a single picture. Milton Brown describes this change in technique, "The brushstrokes become larger and bolder and take on an abstract quality apart from the underlying forms they are supposed to define, moving in independent directions, and varying in size and shape. But, while obscuring and overriding those forms, they succeed in unifying the pictorial surface." (Maurice Brazil Prendergast and Charles Prendergast: A Catalogue Raisonné, p. 22)

Integral to many of Prendergast's works are the frames. Charles Prendergast, Maurice's brother, was an artist and a master framemaker. The two worked closely together designing and producing frames that would beautifully compliment his brother's paintings -- Waterfall is such an example. Maurice, who admired the lines of period frames, created frames reminiscent of various European styles including Italian and Venetian Renaissance and Spanish Baroque. The present frame beautifully harmonizes with the texture and movement of the painting creating a completely unified effect.

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