Artist Name:
Maurice Brazil Prendergast
Nationality & Life Dates:
American, 1858–1924
Title:
Procession, Venice
Date:
1899
Medium:
Watercolor and gouache on paperboard
Dimensions:
11 x 12 3/16 inches
Credit Line:
Bequest of John Gardner Greene in memory of his uncle, Howard Gardner Nichols
Accession Number:
75.2
On View - Wieland Pavilion, Lower Level, Gallery 100
Maurice Prendergast spent his entire life in the pursuit of art. The cityscape of Venice dominates his work of the period during which he arrived at a heightened command of the elusive and difficult medium of watercolor. His response to the visual excitement of Venice is especially keen in his watercolors of the city’s great public spaces, where an atmosphere of pageantry prevails. In Procession, Venice, Prendergast used the transparent properties of watercolor to maximum effect, laying in clearly separated color notes while keeping overlapping passages of wash to a minimum.