Lot 79
  • 79

Maurice B. Prendergast 1858-1924

Estimate
900,000 - 1,200,000 USD
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Description

  • Maurice Brazil Prendergast
  • Venice: Traghetti-Battelli
  • signed Prendergast and inscribed Traghetti-Battelli, l.l.
  • watercolor on paper
  • 10 3/4 by 15 in.
  • (27.3 by 38.1 cm)
  • Executed circa 1898-1899.

Provenance

Elizabeth Bartol
Private Collection (her cousin), 1913
Davis & Langdale, New York
Acquired by the present owners from the above, circa 1990s

Exhibited

Boston, Massachusetts, Boston Water Color Club, Twelfth Annual Exhibition, 1899, no. 110 (as The Traghetto)

Literature

Ellen S. Glavin and Eleanor Green, "Chronology," Maurice Prendergast: Art of Impulse and Color, College Park, Maryland,1976, p. 40
Richard York, An American Gallery, 1987, no. 12, illustrated
Carol Clark, Nancy Mowll Mathews and Gwendolyn Owens, Maurice Brazil Prendergast, Charles Prendergast: A Catalogue Raisonné, Williamstown, Massachusetts, 1990, no. 709, p. 385, illustrated

Condition

Very good condition; unframed: hinged to the mat in four corners.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Catalogue Note

The spectacular light and picturesque architecture of Italy captivated Maurice Prendergast during a pivotal sojourn in 1898-1899, and resulted in a series of dazzling and highly developed watercolors.  Over an eighteen-month period, Prendergast traveled to Venice, Padua, Florence, Siena, Orvieto, Rome, Naples and Capri, and found his subject matter in the religious processions, secular parades, and gathering crowds of locals and tourists which he painted against the backdrop of scenic architecture.  Prior to leaving for Italy, Prendergast had already achieved some critical success in the 1890s with the watercolors he painted along the New England coast, colorfully portraying the leisurely activities at seaside resorts like Revere Beach, Nahant and Marblehead.  In comparing these consecutive periods of the artist's career, Richard Wattenmaker writes: "Building on the subtle color adjustments of the New England coast series, the Italian watercolors maintain their level of richness and complexity, assuming a luminosity and transparency that in sheet after sheet simply dazzle in their vibrant, airy, shimmering sweep" (Maurice Prendergast, New York, 1994, p. 43).

 

Prendergast developed his watercolor technique while studying at the Atelier Colarossi and Académie Julien in Paris from 1891-94.  While there, he saw the work of the Neo-Impressionists, contemporary revolutionary French artists who favored orderly arrangements of pattern, color and texture in contrast to the spontaneity of Impressionism.  Upon his arrival in Venice, Prendergast also became familiar with the Renaissance masterpieces of Vittore Carpaccio.  His biographer Van Wyck Brooks noted that the artist "was always talking about Carpaccio...his figures on the steps of canals and his spots of color" (The Lure of Italy, Boston, Massachusetts, 1992, p. 428).  Richard Wattenmaker writes: "In his Italian watercolors, Maurice used walls as natural grids; among their intervals he packed the spaces full of picturesque activity, a tradition that Carpaccio, the Bellini's, and the eighteenth-century Venetian view paintings, especially Canaletto, followed in their large-scale set pieces, choreographing the activity with a precision and elegant calligraphic notation that Maurice doubtlessly scrutinized at every opportunity in the Galleria dell'Academia" (Maurice Prendergast, p. 52).

 

In the present work, a fleet of traghetti battelli, or gondolas, form a delightful pattern as they gather at the edge of the shoreline, their crescent shapes vividly reflecting off the canal's waters. Prendergast's elegant sense of geometric structure balances space and form with a lightness of touch that is one of the hallmarks of Prendergast's watercolor technique. The elongated forms of the dark vessels are framed by a frieze of buildings above and dancing ripples of water below, while Prendergast's fluid transparent strokes of color animate the composition and infuse it with an atmosphere of light and air. Disappearing pencil under-drawings testify to the highly calculated organization that belies the feeling of immediacy and spontaneity of the finished work.