Picnic in the Park.

[Boston], 1895.. Monotype with pencil additions, on japon paper. Signed and dated at lower right, in the plate: M B Prendergast 1895. Image: 254 x 200 mm. (10 x 7 7/8 inches). Sheet size: 390 x 274 mm. (ca. 13 5/16 x 10 3/4 inches). Sight (as matted): 262 x 213 mm. (10 1/2 x 8 3/8 inches). Provenance: The artist; to Charles Prendergast, 1924; to Mrs. Charles Prendergast, 1948; gift of Mrs. Charles Prendergast to Peter A. Wick, 1960; by descent to the present owner, 1978.   Exhibited: Davis & Long Company: The Monotypes of Maurice Prendergast: A Loan Exhibition (New York, April 1979), no. 29.  "Picnic in the Park" is the second pull of the monotype "Spring in Franklin Park," one of the important group of Prendergast monotypes now in the collection of the Terra Museum of American Art. In her discussion of the latter, Cecily Langdale observes that "Picnic in the Park" shares with "Spring in Franklin Park" an exceptional color scheme. "'Picnic in Franklin Park' is notably strong in color (as, indeed, is even the second pull from the same plate); in it, the vivid greens of the grass and trees are accented by the brownish black trunks and pink blossoms of those trees, and by the black, brown, and white dresses and hats of the little girls. In this monotype, Prendergast has relied to an unusual degree upon the 'back of the brush' technique; most of the figures are outlined and much of the foliage delineated in that manner" (Langdale, 1979).  Comparatively few of Prendergast's monotypes are dated, as is this one. When it was shown in New York in 1979, Langdale noted that of the 107 monotypes in the exhibition, only 17 were dated. The year 1895 marks the beginning of Prendergast's most significant work in the monotype medium. "In late 1894 or early 1895, Prendergast departed from Paris to go back to Boston; when he had left his native city four years earlier, he had been a self-taught amateur; now he was returning as a superbly assured mature artist…. The next several years were extremely productive ones for him. While he certainly painted the occasional oil, it was a period during which his concentration was focused upon the media of watercolor and monotype. Between 1895 and 1898, Prendergast produced a substantial percentage of his monotype oeuvre" (Langdale, 1984). Backed with a second sheet of japon, folded back at top and bottom margins; some small marginal tears (consolidated by the backing) and light marginal soiling.