Charles Prendergast (1863–1948) was a Newfoundlander-American Post-Impressionist artist as well as a designer and maker of picture frames. He was the younger brother of the artist,

Maurice Prendergast Maurice Brazil Prendergast (October 10, 1858 – February 1, 1924) was an American artist who painted in oil and watercolor, and created monotypes. His delicate landscapes and scenes of modern life, characterized by mosaic-like color, are ...

Life

He was born on 27 May 1863 in St. John's, Newfoundland. In 1868 the family moved to Boston, Massachusetts, where he lived until 1914 when he and his brother moved to New York City. In 1890 he traveled to Paris with Maurice, taking art classes with his brother who was studying at the Académie Colarossi and the

Académie Julian The () was a private art school for painting and sculpture founded in Paris, France, in 1867 by French painter and teacher Rodolphe Julian (1839–1907). The school was active from 1868 through 1968. It remained famous for the number and qual ...

. On his return to Boston, Charles became a custom woodworker, eventually focusing on creating unique picture frames influenced by the

Arts and Crafts movement The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and America. Initiat ...

. He produced “highly prized, hand-carved frames for the greatest artists of his day, including

John Singer Sargent John Singer Sargent (; January 12, 1856 – April 15, 1925) was an American expatriate artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian era, Edwardian-era luxury. He created roughly 900 oil ...

. He traveled to Italy in 1911, again with his brother, visiting

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

Pisa Pisa ( ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Tuscany, Central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for the Leaning Tow ...

, and

Siena Siena ( , ; traditionally spelled Sienna in English; ) is a city in Tuscany, in central Italy, and the capital of the province of Siena. It is the twelfth most populated city in the region by number of inhabitants, with a population of 52,991 ...

. On his return to Boston, he began to produce paintings in addition to his frames; he was then almost fifty years old. His first painting, ''Rising Sun'', was on a carved wood and

gesso A restored gesso panel representing St. Martin of Tours, from St. Michael and All Angels Church, Lyndhurst, Hampshire Gesso (; 'chalk', from the , from ), also known as "glue gesso" or "Italian gesso", is a white paint mixture used to coat rigi ...

panel. In 1915 he exhibited his paintings at the Montross Gallery in New York and in 1917 and 1918 at the Society of Independent Artists. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s he exhibited at the Kraushaar Galleries, also in New York. In 1927, Prendergast married Eugénie Van Kemmel. He died on 20 August 1948 at the age of eighty-five in Westport, Connecticut. The Williams College Museum of Art in Williamstown, Massachusetts maintains the "Prendergast Archive and Study Center"; it was established in 1983 in cooperation with Charles' widow, Eugénie Prendergast (1894–1994). Their collection holds approximately four hundred works by Charles and Maurice Prendergast, as well as about fifteen-hundred related archival objects.

Influence of Maurice Prendergast

Richard J. Wattenmaker, then Director of the Rutgers University Art Gallery, wrote in 1968: "By far the most pervasive influence on Prendergast was the work of his brother, Maurice. The profound intimacy of ideas between the two is freely reflected in the joyous spontaneity and jewel-like, color-laden decorativeness which permeate both their work, as well as the innovational flexibility with which each handles his chosen medium."

Art market

In May 1998 Charles Prendergast's painting, ''Spirit of the Hunt'', sold for $1,432,500 in a public auction at

Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, and it has additional salerooms in New York, Paris, Hong Kong, Milan, Geneva, Shan ...

. ''Spirit of the Hunt'' is signed with the initials of both Charles and his brother, Maurice, but Nancy Mowll Mathews, art historian and noted authority on the Prendergasts, writes: "The style of this panel can only be associated with Charles. ..Indeed, when the work was published in 1919, no mention is made of the hand of Maurice."

Collections

This is an incomplete list. * Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts * Barnes Foundation, Merion, Pennsylvania *

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is an art museum beside the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. The museum was initially endowed during the 1960s with the permanent art collection of Joseph H. Hirshhorn. It was designed ...

, Washington, D.C. *

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

, New York, New York * Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence, Rhode Island *

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the list of largest art museums, 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 painting ...

, Massachusetts * Newark Museum, Newark, New Jersey *

Wadsworth Atheneum The Wadsworth Atheneum is an art museum in Hartford, Connecticut. The Wadsworth is noted for its collections of European Baroque art, ancient Egyptian and Classical bronzes, French and American Impressionism, Impressionist paintings, Hudson Riv ...

, Hartford, Connecticut * Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, Massachusetts *

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is a Modern art, modern and Contemporary art, contemporary American art museum located in the Meatpacking District, Manhattan, Meatpacking District and West Village neighbor ...

, New York, New York

Gallery

File:Charles_Prendergast_-_Three-Panel_Screen_(front).jpg, Charles Prendergast, ''Three-Panel Screen'' (front), ''c.'' 1916-1917, oil and gold leaf on gessoed wood, each panel, 75 x 27¼ in, private collection. File:Charles_Prendergast_-_Three-Panel_Screen_(back).jpg, Charles Prendergast, ''Three-Panel Screen'' (back), ''c.'' 1916-1917, oil and gold leaf on gessoed wood, each panel, 75 x 27¼ in, private collection. File:Charles_Prendergast_-_The_Offering.jpg, Charles Prendergast, ''The Offering'', ''c.'' 1916-1917, tempera and gold leaf on carved panel, 20 x 25 in, private collection. File:Charles Prendergast and Maurice Prendergast - The Spirit of the Hunt.jpg, Charles Prendergast and Maurice Prendergast, ''The Spirit of the Hunt'', before 1919, tempera, gold and silver leaf, and pencil on gessoed panel, 55 x 80½ in, private collection.

References

*Nancy Mowll Mathews; Marion M. Goethals (1993). ''Charles Prendergast''. Williamstown, MA.: Williams College Museum of Art. . (Exhibition catalog) *Richard J. Wattenmaker (1968). ''Charles Prendergast: 1863-1948''. Rutgers University Art Gallery and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. LCCN 68009480.
Prendergast Archive and Study Center, Williams College Museum of Art.
Retrieved 10 December 2013.

Nancy Mowll Mathews. Art History Archives. Retrieved 10 December 2013. (Text of the Mathews essay in the above 1993 exhibition catalog)

Catalogue raisonné

*Clark, Carol; Mathews, Nancy Mowll; Owens, Gwendolyn (1990). ''Maurice Brazil Prendergast, Charles Prendergast: A Catalogue Raisonné''. Williamstown, MA: Williams College Museum of Art and Prestel-Verlag, Munich. .

External links

Prendergasts in the Barnes Foundation Collection.
Retrieved 10 December 2013.
Frames by Prendergast.
Retrieved 10 December 2013.
Catalogue of the First Annual Exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists, April 10-May 6, 1917.
Retrieved 1 February 2014. {{DEFAULTSORT:Prendergast, Charles 1863 births 1948 deaths 19th-century American painters American male painters 20th-century American painters American Post-impressionist painters Painters from Boston Artists from Newfoundland and Labrador People from St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador 19th-century American male artists 20th-century American male artists Emigrants from pre-Confederation Newfoundland to the United States Immigrants to the United States