The Metropolitan Museum of Art
New York, NY
212-535-7710
http://www.metmuseum.org/
Parks and Promenades: Maurice Prendergast
in The Metropolitan Museum of Art
July 25, 2000 - October 22, 2000
"Parks and Promenades: Maurice Prendergast in The Metropolitan Museum
of Art" will present Maurice Prendergast (1858-1924) as painter, watercolorist,
draftsman, and book illustrator. Gathered from the holdings of the Metropolitan
Museum's Department of American Paintings and Sculpture, Department of Drawings
and Prints, and Robert Lehman Collection, the 
exhibition will be the first to present the Museum's
entire collection of Prendergast's work. Cursory pencil drawings of incidental
Parisian life; luminous, large-scale watercolors from the Large Boston
Public Garden Sketchbook (1895-97); and oil paintings of recreational
activities on the Massachusetts shore and in New York's Central Park will
chronicle a lifetime of plein-air observation. On view July 25 through October
22, 2000, the exhibition will feature some 70 works, including many of Prendergast's
most acclaimed watercolors, which, because of their sensitivity to light,
have not been shown together for more than a decade. (left: Central
Park, probably painted between 1908-1910, oil on canvas, 20-3/4 x 27
inches, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, George A. Hearn Fund, 1950 50.25;
right: A woman passing a café, Folio 44 recto from Large Boston
Public Garden Sketchbook, 1895-97, watercolor over pencil on paper,
14-1/16 x 11-3/16 inches, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Robert Lehman
Collection, 1975 1975.1.967)
Prendergast's highly finished Boston Public Garden watercolors glimpse those
intimate details of daily life - mothers and children, idlers and strollers
- all fleetingly observed in one of America's iconic19th-century urban landscapes.
Watercolors of the bustling seaside playgrounds near Boston, of the Piazza
San Marco and the Rialto bridge in Venice, and of other leisurely locales
trace the artist's travels both in the U.S. and abroad. A jubilant spirit
also characterizes the exhibition's oil paintings depicting lively vignettes
of horses and carriages, promenading ladies with parasols, and children
at play. (left: Piazza di San Marco, watercolor and graphite
on white wove paper, 16-5/8 x 15-5/16 inches, The Metropolitan Museum of
Art, Gift of Estate of Mrs. Edward Robinson, 1952 52.126.6)
Prendergast, whose career coincided with Boston's preeminence
in printing and publishing in the 1890s, also worked briefly as a commercial
illustrator. The exhibition will feature several of the artist's book designs,
advertisements, and - his most ambitious publishing enterprise - the provocatively
illustrated My Lady Nicotine: A Study in Smoke by J. M. Barrie.
The
exhibition is organized by Dita Amory, Assistant Curator, Robert Lehman
Collection, in collaboration with H. Barbara Weinberg, the Alice Pratt Brown
Curator, and Dana Pilson, Administrative Assistant, Department of American
Paintings and Sculpture. (left: A mother sitting at the edge of a
pond with her baby and young daughter, Folio 30 recto from Large Boston
Public Garden Sketchbook, 1895-97, watercolor over pencil on paper,
14-1/16 x 11-3/16 inches, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Robert Lehman
Collection, 1975 1975.1.953)
The Robert Lehman Collection catalogue, "American
Drawings and Watercolors in the Robert Lehman Collection," will be
available for purchase in the Museum's bookshops. Published by The Metropolitan
Museum of Art, the scholarly catalogue fully illustrates the Large Boston
Public Garden Sketchbook, acquired by Mr. Lehman from Mrs. Charles Prendergast
in 1961.
The exhibition is made possible by Robert Lehman Foundation,
Inc.
Readers may also enjoy The Art
of Leisure: Maurice and Charles Prendergast in the Williams College Museum
of Art (6/16/00)
rev. 6/17/00
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"Parks and Promenades: Maurice Prendergast in The Metropolitan Museum
of Art" will present Maurice Prendergast (1858-1924) as painter, watercolorist,
draftsman, and book illustrator. Gathered from the holdings of the Metropolitan
Museum's Department of American Paintings and Sculpture, Department of Drawings
and Prints, and Robert Lehman Collection, the 
exhibition will be the first to present the Museum's
entire collection of Prendergast's work. Cursory pencil drawings of incidental
Parisian life; luminous, large-scale watercolors from the Large Boston
Public Garden Sketchbook (1895-97); and oil paintings of recreational
activities on the Massachusetts shore and in New York's Central Park will
chronicle a lifetime of plein-air observation. On view July 25 through October
22, 2000, the exhibition will feature some 70 works, including many of Prendergast's
most acclaimed watercolors, which, because of their sensitivity to light,
have not been shown together for more than a decade. (left: Central
Park, probably painted between 1908-1910, oil on canvas, 20-3/4 x 27
inches, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, George A. Hearn Fund, 1950 50.25;
right: A woman passing a café, Folio 44 recto from Large Boston
Public Garden Sketchbook, 1895-97, watercolor over pencil on paper,
14-1/16 x 11-3/16 inches, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Robert Lehman
Collection, 1975 1975.1.967)
