Sachgebiete

Beschreibung:

XXII; 88 S. mit Abb. Originalhalbleinen, im Schuber.

Bemerkung:

Schuber leicht berieben. - PREFACE -- INTRODUCTION -- PROVENANCE and EXHIBITION HISTORY -- MAURICE PRENDERGAST: SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY -- THE FACSIMILE -- This volume presents in facsimile the entire contents of a folio sketchbook created by the American Impressionist, Maurice Brazil Prendergast, between 1892 and 1897. The sketches on 44 pages are mostly watercolors, interspersed with some pencil and pen-and-ink drawings. Because of its unusual size and since most of the pictures in it represent figures and scenes from and around the famous Public Garden in Boston, it is generally called the Large Boston Public Garden Sketchbook. These sketches, from the large finished and signed compositions to the small notations of solitary figures, record and immortalize on fragile paper fleeting impressions of people, nature, and city, the changing colors of trees and flowers, the shifting and fluctuation of shadow and light and moods of humans as well, the ebb and flow of life. The two years of creative surge that are encapsulated in this sketchbook are part of an important body of work that established Maurice Prendergast as a leading painter of his generation. It is this special quality that probably endeared it to the artist; some of the compositions are carefully framed with strong lines and signed with his full name. On his death in 1924 the volume passed to his brother and fellow artist, Charles Prendergast, and later to his widow, Mrs. Charles Prendergast of Westport, Connecticut; it was acquired from her by Robert Lehman in 1961, and together with the Robert Lehman Collection it entered the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1975. The Large Boston Public Garden Sketchbook is a unique creation. It is probably the largest of the 84 known sketchbooks used by Maurice Prendergast. From the large pages, exuberance of color radiates. The compositions as well as the single figures are selected with an unerring eye. They are all enhanced with an immediacy and profound understanding of people and of the medium of watercolor that it is almost unmatched. It is also a unique and precious document of the times: costume, mores, atmosphere and spirit of turn-of-the-century Boston and America are recorded here as seen through the faithful but still sympathetic eye of a great and humble artist. (Vorwort) ISBN 0807611840