Maurice Prendergast
Maurice Prendergast | 1858–1924 | Beach No. 3 c.1913 | Oil on canvas | 47.9 x 75.9cm | Bequest of Miss Adelaide Milton de Groot (1876–1967) 1967 (67.187.135) | Collection: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York | Photograph courtesy: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Beach No. 3 c.1913
Maurice Prendergast (1858–1924) travelled to Paris in 1891 where he studied at the Académie Colarossi and the Académie Julian for two years. His interest in, and mastery of, decorative pattern, design and colour derived from his experience of seeing the work of Paul Cézanne; the Nabis painters Edouard Vuillard and Pierre Bonnard; and Fauve paintings by Henri Matisse, Maurice de Vlaminck and André Derain. Prendergast returned to the United States in 1895 and found an enthusiastic market for his scenes of modern French life and leisure. Further travel to Europe in 1898 and again to Paris in 1907 confirmed his commitment to a more avant-garde style than his contemporaries. Beach No. 3 c.1913 is typical of the manner in which Prendergast applied his experience of French painting to local scenes of leisure, which he transformed into decorative pastorals of colour and stylised design.
