Maurice Prendergast, Beach Scene Oil on canvas, 28 x 40 in. (71.1 x 101.6 cm.) New York Private Collection Maurice Prendergast (1858-1924) was born in Newfoundland, Canada and spent the majority of his life in Boston and its surrounding townships. A student of European Post-impressionism as well an early vanguard of American Modernism, Prendergast’s colorful, flattened scenes of leisure and idleness set among New England’s parks and shores are among the most beloved works of early 20th century American art.

Through Prendergast’s life he painted dozens of scenes of the beaches and harbors north of Boston—in Salem, Marblehead, Nahant and Gloucester (Figs. 2-15). Beach Scene (Fig. 1), a characteristic example of this genre, shows an assemblage of ladies socializing near the water with their dogs on a fine summer day. In the background a little girl on a donkey is lead along the shore by a man.

At the notable 1913 Armory Show Prendergast’s work was denigrated by famed contemporary and principal organizer of the event, Arthur B. Davies, as resembling, “an explosion in a paint factory.1”

Beach Scene is notable for its present untouched, un-restored, deteriorated condition in which it was found (Figs 16-35). The paint layer, experiencing flaking losses is in need of stabilization (Figs. 16,17). The canvas was never re-stretched. The stretcher and fasteners date the hundred- year-old canvas.

The painting is signed on the lower right (Fig. 16). The signature is obscured under UV light. Howard Shaw of Hammer Galleries has compared the painting with a similar painting in the collection of Hammer Galleries founder, Dr. Armand Hammer.

Research: M.S.

1 “Maurice Prendergast.” SAAM. https://americanart.si.edu/artist/maurice-prendergast-3875 (accessed April, 1, 2019). Fig. 1

Maurice Prendergast, Beach Scene Oil on canvas 28 x 40 in. (71.1 x 101.6 cm.) New York Private Collection Figure 2 Figure 5

Maurice Prendergast, Summer, New England Maurice Prendergast, Fantasy Oil on canvas, 1912 Oil on canvas, c. 1914-15 (48.9 x 69.9 cm.) 22.1 x 31.6 in. (56.2 x 80.3 cm.) Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C. The Phillips Collection, Washington D.C.

Figure 3 Figure 6 Maurice Prendergast, Beach Scene with Donkeys Oil on canvas, c. 1914-15 Maurice Prendergast, Gloucester Harbor 22.1 x 32.1 (56.2 x 81.6 cm.) Oil on canvas, c. 1918-23 Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia 23.3 x 27.5 in. (59.1 x 69.9 cm.)

Figure 7 Figure 4 Maurice Prendergast, Holidays Maurice Prendergast, The Promenade Oil on canvas, c. 1915-18 Oil on canvas, 1913 30 x 43.4 in. (76.2 x 109.9 cm.) 30 x 34 in. (76.2 x 86.4 cm.) Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis Whitney Museum of American Art, New York Figure 8 Figure 11 Maurice Prendergast, The Idlers Oil on canvas, c. 1918-20 Maurice Prendergast, Landscape with Figures 21 x 32 in. (53.3 x 32.1 cm.) Oil on canvas, c. 1913-16 Maier Museum of Art, Lynchburg 29.8 x 43 in. (75.6 x 109.2 cm.) Detroit Institute of the Arts, Detroit

Figure 9

Maurice Prendergast, In the Park Figure 12 Oil on canvas, c. 1914-16 25 x 36 in. (63.5 x 91.4 cm.) Maurice Prendergast, Landscape with Figures Oil on canvas, 1921 32.6 x 42.6 in. (82.9 x 108.3 cm.) Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

Figure 10 Figure 13 Maurice Prendergast, Ladies in a Seaside Arbor Oil on canvas, c. 1914-15 Maurice Prendergast, On the Beach No. 3 22.5 x 24.4 in. (57.2 x 61.9 cm.) Oil on canvas, c. 1916-18 26 x 33.1 in. (66 x 84.1 cm.) Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland Figure 14 Figure 15 Maurice Prendergast, The Promenade Oil on canvas, c. 1912-1913 Maurice Prendergast, Twilight 28 x 40.3 in. (71.1 x 102.2 cm.) Oil on canvas, c. 1918-23 Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus 21 x 27 in. (53.3 x 68.6 cm.)

Figure 16 Detail, signature of Beach Scene Oil on canvas 28 x 40 in. (71.1 x 101.6 cm.) New York Private Collection Figure 17 Figure 18

Detail, Beach Scene Detail, Beach Scene Oil on canvas Oil on canvas 28 x 40 in. (71.1 x 101.6 cm.) 28 x 40 in. (71.1 x 101.6 cm.) New York Private Collection New York Private Collection

Figure 19 Figure 20 Detail, Beach Scene Oil on canvas Detail, Beach Scene 28 x 40 in. (71.1 x 101.6 cm.) Oil on canvas New York Private Collection 28 x 40 in. (71.1 x 101.6 cm.) New York Private Collection

Figure 21

Detail, Beach Scene Oil on canvas 28 x 40 in. (71.1 x 101.6 cm.) New York Private Collection Figure 22

Detail, Beach Scene Oil on canvas 28 x 40 in. (71.1 x 101.6 cm.) New York Private Collection Figure 23 Figure 24

Detail, Beach Scene Detail, Beach Scene Oil on canvas Oil on canvas 28 x 40 in. (71.1 x 101.6 cm.) 28 x 40 in. (71.1 x 101.6 cm.) New York Private Collection New York Private Collection

Figure 25 Figure 26 Detail, Beach Scene Oil on canvas Detail, Beach Scene 28 x 40 in. (71.1 x 101.6 cm.) Oil on canvas New York Private Collection 28 x 40 in. (71.1 x 101.6 cm.) New York Private Collection

Figure 27 Figure 28

Detail, Beach Scene Detail, Beach Scene Oil on canvas Oil on canvas 28 x 40 in. (71.1 x 101.6 cm.) 28 x 40 in. (71.1 x 101.6 cm.) New York Private Collection New York Private Collection Figure 29 Figure 30

Detail, Beach Scene Detail, Beach Scene Oil on canvas Oil on canvas 28 x 40 in. (71.1 x 101.6 cm.) 28 x 40 in. (71.1 x 101.6 cm.) New York Private Collection New York Private Collection.

Figure 31 Figure 32 Detail, Beach Scene Oil on canvas Detail, Beach Scene 28 x 40 in. (71.1 x 101.6 cm.) Oil on canvas New York Private Collection 28 x 40 in. (71.1 x 101.6 cm.) New York Private Collection

Figure 33 Figure 34

Detail, Beach Scene Detail, Beach Scene Oil on canvas Oil on canvas 28 x 40 in. (71.1 x 101.6 cm.) 28 x 40 in. (71.1 x 101.6 cm.) New York Private Collection New York Private Collection Figure 35

Detail, Beach Scene Oil on canvas 28 x 40 in. (71.1 x 101.6 cm.) New York Private Collection