Maurice Brazil Prendergast
Circus Audience
1889-1899
Physical Qualities
Monotype with graphite and colored pencil, Sheet: 232 x 203 mm. (9 1/8 x 8 in.)
Credit Line
Blanche Adler Memorial Fund
Object Number
1952.70
Circus Audience is a monotype which Prendergast created by applying ink to a smooth surface (like glass), placing a sheet of paper on top of this surface, and then rubbing the paper with the back of a spoon. Even though two or three pulls are possible from one inking, each will vary greatly in terms of saturation of color. For Prendergast the second or third pull produced the most desirable effects. Prendergast's monotypes (only 148 are known) all date from 1891 to 1902 and he exhibited them frequently during these years, indicating his belief that they were independent works of art.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by purchase, 1952; Kraushaar Galleries, NY; Mrs. Charles Prendergast, Westport, CT, by 1948; Charles Prendergast, by 1924; the artist
Kraushaar Galleries, NY, "Maurice Prendergast: Retrospective Exhibition of Paintings, Water Colors, and Monotypes," 3-28 January 1950, cat 44.
Organized by Kraushaar Galleries, NY, "Monotypes by Maurice Prendergast," 18 Feburary - 23 March 1952, at Goucher College and then 25 March- 27 April 1952, in the "Print Alcoves" at the BMA, no cat.
William Cooper Procter Art Center, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, "Maurice Prendergast: The Monotypes," 1 May - 21 May 1967, cat 57.
E.B. Crocker Art Gallery, Sacramento, CA, "19th and 20th Century Prints and Drawings from the Baltimore Museum of Art," 2 November - 2 December 1973, cat 53. circulated?
University of Maryland Art Gallery, College Park, MD, "Maurice Prendergast: Art of Impulse and Color," 1 Sept - 6 Oct 1976, cat. 11, illus. p. 80, entry p. 102. Circulated to University Museum, Austin, TX; Des Moines Fine Arts Center; Johnson Museum, Cornell University through 15 April 1977. Then to final venue: Davis and Long Gallery, New York, May 4- 28, 1977.
Jay Fisher, BMA, "American Art 1900-1930: Paintings and Works on Paper from the BMA Collection," 5 September - 22 October, 1978.
BMA, "19th-Century American Monotypes from the Museum Collection," Autumn 1985 (an appendix exh to "Etchings in America, 1875-1940: Selections from the Museum Collection," 5 November 1985 - 2 March 1986, on view in the Bright foyer).
Jay Fisher, BMA, "Old Master Drawings from the BMA and Gilmor Collections," 10 October - 10 December, 1989.
David Curry & Ann Shafer, BMA, "American Realism: Ashcan Artists," January 9-April 6, 2008.
Organized by Kraushaar Galleries, NY, "Monotypes by Maurice Prendergast," 18 Feburary - 23 March 1952, at Goucher College and then 25 March- 27 April 1952, in the "Print Alcoves" at the BMA, no cat.
William Cooper Procter Art Center, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, "Maurice Prendergast: The Monotypes," 1 May - 21 May 1967, cat 57.
E.B. Crocker Art Gallery, Sacramento, CA, "19th and 20th Century Prints and Drawings from the Baltimore Museum of Art," 2 November - 2 December 1973, cat 53. circulated?
University of Maryland Art Gallery, College Park, MD, "Maurice Prendergast: Art of Impulse and Color," 1 Sept - 6 Oct 1976, cat. 11, illus. p. 80, entry p. 102. Circulated to University Museum, Austin, TX; Des Moines Fine Arts Center; Johnson Museum, Cornell University through 15 April 1977. Then to final venue: Davis and Long Gallery, New York, May 4- 28, 1977.
Jay Fisher, BMA, "American Art 1900-1930: Paintings and Works on Paper from the BMA Collection," 5 September - 22 October, 1978.
BMA, "19th-Century American Monotypes from the Museum Collection," Autumn 1985 (an appendix exh to "Etchings in America, 1875-1940: Selections from the Museum Collection," 5 November 1985 - 2 March 1986, on view in the Bright foyer).
Jay Fisher, BMA, "Old Master Drawings from the BMA and Gilmor Collections," 10 October - 10 December, 1989.
David Curry & Ann Shafer, BMA, "American Realism: Ashcan Artists," January 9-April 6, 2008.
Wick, Peter A., "Maurice Prendergast 1859-1924," Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1960, p. 106.
Langdale, Cecily. Davis and Long Co., "The Monotypes of Maurice Prendergast: A Loan Exhibition" 1979, p. 8, illus. p. 74.
Langdale, Cecily. "Monotypes by Maurice Prendergast in the Terra Museum of American Art," Chicago, 1984, p. 84.
Inscribed: lower right in graphite: " M.B.P."; lower right in crayon: "P."
