A Study of Two Schooners, (Fishing Schooners, Treport), 1892

This watercolor was painted by Maurice Prendergast during his second trip to Europe (1891-1894).[1]  While in Paris, studying at the Académies Julien and Colarossi, Prendergast met Robert Henri (1865-1929), who was also studying in Paris at the time.  While Prendergast is not considered a part of the Ashcan School per se, his close friendship with Henri, William Glackens (1870-1938), and John Sloan (1871-19510) led to his participation in the landmark 1908 exhibition “The Eight” at the Macbeth Gallery, in New York.[2]  Furthermore, Prendergast’s concentration on figures at leisure in an urban environment aligns his early work with the other artists on display here.

Watercolor was an important medium in Prendergast’s oeuvre; he filled more than eighty sketchbooks with similar works. A Study of Two Schooners was painted in Upper Normandy in the coastal town of Le Tréport. During that time, Prendergast also visited and sketched in Dieppe, which is slightly to the south. A series of boat studies exist from these visits.

Daringly foreshortened, two great schooners emerge in the middle-ground, their hulls almost kissing. Mixing translucent blues, greens, grays, and browns, Prendergast conjures these vessels and the deep shadows that they cast into the water. Other boats are visible behind. Sail, masts, and riggings are formed by additional colors, such as purples and reds, providing horizontal and vertical markers in space.  While, it was characteristic of Prendergast’s work from this period to leave the foreground rather empty,[3] he has here filled the bottom third of the compositions with energized, calligraphic swirls to create ripples in the water, such as on the right.  Closer to the boats, short dabs in a wide range of colors foreshadow his mature work to come.

[1] He and his brother Charles (1863-1934) had visited England and Wales in 1886-1887.

[2] On Predergast’s participation in “The Eight,” see, for example, Bennard Perlman, The Immortal Eight: American Painting from Eakins to the Armory Show (1870-1913), New York, Exposition Press, 1962.

[3] Carol Clark, Nancy Mowll Mathews, and Gwendolyn Owens, Maurice Brazil Prendergast, Charles Prendergast: A Catalogue Raisonné, Williamstown, Massachusetts, 1989, p. 19.