Beach No. 3

Maurice Brazil Prendergast

ca. 1913 · Oil on canvas · The American Wing

Under the influence of the French painters Henri Matisse and Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, Prendergast put aside his earlier interest in depicting the real world in favor of conveying imaginary scenes. Here, he abandoned conventional perspective; employed tiered bands to create a shallow, frieze-like space; and devised a stylized shorthand to depict anonymous, faceless figures. For the landscape setting, he used dashes of white and yellow paint to imply flowing water and bright daubs of orange and gold to indicate a carpet of flowers.

Artist

Maurice Brazil Prendergast

Date

ca. 1913

Medium

Oil on canvas

Culture

American

Department

The American Wing

Credit line

Bequest of Miss Adelaide Milton de Groot (1876-1967), 1967