Prendergast, Maurice

Prendergast, Maurice (Brazil)

(born Oct. 10, 1859, St. John's, Nfd., Can.—died Feb. 1, 1924, New York, N.Y., U.S.) Canadian-born U.S. painter. He moved with his family to Boston in 1868. After study in Paris (1891–94), he spent much of his career traveling and painting abroad. He was the first U.S. artist to fully absorb French Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. His lively street scenes feature floating geometric areas of brilliant decorative colour with a mosaiclike effect. He produced his most outstanding works in watercolour. In his later years he lived in New York City and exhibited with The Eight and in the 1913 Armory Show.

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Prendergast, Maurice (Brazil) (1859–1924) painter; born in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada. He arrived in Boston (1861) and was apprenticed to a show-card painter when young. Later he studied at the Académie Julien, Paris (1891–95), and returned to Boston where he set up an art studio (1897). He made sporadic trips to Europe as his reputation as an artist grew, and was a member of the Eight (1908), although his water colors and oils didn't reflect the harsh realism of some of the other members of the group. He experimented with style, but his work always had an impressionistic vitality, as in Central Park (1900). He lived above the studio of William Glackens in New York (1914–24).