Prendergast, Maurice

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).