Dieppe, ca. 1892-1894

Provenance

The artist

Charles Prendergast, by descent from above, 1924

Mrs. Charles Prendergast, by descent from above, 1948

Kraushaar Galleries, New York, New York

Raymond Chaffetz, acquired from above, 1949

Kraushaar Galleries, New York, New York

Arthur G. Altschul, New York, acquired from above, 1956

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York, acquired from above, 1975

Sale, Sotheby’s, New York, New York, December 16, 2023, lot 583, from above

Private collection, New York, New York

Exhibited

Maurice Prendergast, 1859–1924, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, October 26–December 4, 1960; Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut, December 29, 1960–February 5, 1961; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York, February 21–April 2, 1961; Legion of Honor, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, California, April 22–June 3, 1961; The Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio, June 20–July 30, 1961

Maurice Prendergast: Art of Impulse and Color, University of Maryland Art Gallery, College Park, Maryland, September 1–October 6, 1976; University Art Museum, University of Texas, Austin, October 17–November 21, 1976; Des Moines Art Center, Iowa, December 1–January 2 1977; Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, Ohio, January 14–February 20, 1977; Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Ithaca, New York, March 1–April 15, 1977; Davis and Long Company, New York, New York, May 3–May 28, 1977

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York, Maurice B. Prendergast: A Concentration of Works from the Permanent Collection, January 9–March 2, 1980

Americans in Brittany and Normandy 1860–1910, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, September 24–November 28, 1982; Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas, December 16, 1982–February 6, 1983; Phoenix Art Museum, Arizona, March 18–May 1, 1983; National Museum of American Art, Washington, DC, June 10–August 14, 1983

Maurice Prendergast, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York, May 31, 1990–September 2, 1990; Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, Massachusetts, October 6, 1990–December 16, 1990; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California, February 21, 1991–April 22, 2991; The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC, May 18, 1991–August 25, 1991.

San Jose Museum of Art, California, American Art 1900–1940: A History Reconsidered. Selections from the Permanent Collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art, May 7, 1994–October 29, 1995

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York, Hopper to Mid-Century: Highlights from the Permanent Collection, 2003

Literature

The Whitney Museum and its Collection: History, Purpose and Activities. Catalogue of the Collection (New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1954), n.p.

Hedley Howell Rhys, Maurice Prendergast, 1859–1924 (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1960), 66, 135, no. 4.

Eleanor Green, Maurice Prendergast: Art of Impulse and Color (College Park, MD: The University of Maryland, 1976), 85–87, no. 7.

Patterson Sims, Maurice B. Prendergast: A Concentration of Works from the Permanent Collection (New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1979), 10, 11, 32.

David Sellin, Americans in Brittany and Normandy 1860–1910 (Phoenix: Phoenix Art Museum, 1982), 176 no. 61.

Cecily Langdale, Monotypes by Maurice Prendergast in the Terra Museum of American Art (Chicago: Terra Museum of American Art, 1984), 12.

Carol Clark, Nancy Mowll Mathews, and Gwendolyn Owens, Maurice Brazil Prendergast, Charles Prendergast: A Catalogue Raisonné (Williamstown, Massachusetts: Williams College Museum of Art, 1990),  211, no. 6.

Nancy Mowll Mathews, Maurice Prendergast (Williamstown, Massachusetts: Williams College Museum of Art, 1990), 13, 49, 181, no. 4.

Related Works

Dieppe, 1892, oil on linen, 12 13/16 x 9 11/16 inches, signed lower left; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York

Brittany Coast, ca. 1892–1894, watercolor on paper, 10 x 6⅞ inches, signed lower right; New Britain Museum of American Art, Connecticut

Note: Dieppe is a town on the Normandy coast in northern France which became a popular destination for 19^th-century painters. Maurice Prendergast created this work early in his career while visiting the French coastline during his first extended trip abroad in the early 1890s. The artist would return to the seaside vistas of Dieppe numerous times. As described in the monograph Maurice Prendergast: Art of Impulse and Color, Prendergast’s Dieppe paintings “disclose an impressionistic appreciation for sunlight, clear skies, and people anonymously pursuing their pleasure.”_[1]

The Whitney Museum of American Art acquired Dieppe in 1975. The painting has been included in several exhibitions at the Whitney, including their 1980 exhibition of Prendergast’s work.

_[1] Jeffrey R. Hayes, “Dieppe,” in Maurice Prendergast: Art of Impulse and Color, ed. Eleanor Green (College Park, MD: The University of Maryland, 1976), 86.