id: 131761
accession number: 1954.337
share license status: Copyrighted
url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1954.337
updated: 2022-07-02 09:00:21.280000
Bastille Day, 1892. Maurice Prendergast (American, 1858-1924). Color monotype; image: 17.4 x 13.1 cm (6 7/8 x 5 3/16 in.); platemark: 25.5 x 20 cm (10 1/16 x 7 7/8 in.); sheet: 30.5 x 24.8 cm (12 x 9 3/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland 1954.337
title: Bastille Day
title in original language:
series:
series in original language:
creation date: 1892
creation date earliest: 1892
creation date latest: 1892
current location:
creditline: Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland
copyright:
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culture: America, 19th century
technique: color monotype
department: Prints
collection: PR - Monotype
type: Print
find spot:
catalogue raisonne:
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CREATORS
* Maurice Prendergast (American, 1858-1924) - artist
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measurements: Image: 17.4 x 13.1 cm (6 7/8 x 5 3/16 in.); Platemark: 25.5 x 20 cm (10 1/16 x 7 7/8 in.); Sheet: 30.5 x 24.8 cm (12 x 9 3/4 in.)
state of the work:
edition of the work:
support materials:
description: cream laid paper
watermarks:
inscriptions:
inscription: inscribed, at bottom in image: Le Quatorze Juillet 1892; initialed, at lower right in image: MBP [in monogram]
translation:
remark:
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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
title: What Was the Armory Show?
opening date: 1963-06-27T04:00:00
What Was the Armory Show?. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (June 27-September 15, 1963).
title: The Painterly Print
opening date: 1980-05-01T04:00:00
The Painterly Print. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (May 1-June 29, 1980); Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, MA (July 29-September 28, 1980).
title: Generous Donors: A Tribute to The Print Club of Cleveland
opening date: 1991-04-02T04:00:00
Generous Donors: A Tribute to The Print Club of Cleveland. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 2-August 4, 1991).
title: Singular Impressions: The Monotype in America
opening date: 1997-04-04T00:00:00
Singular Impressions: The Monotype in America. National Museum of American Art, Washington, DC (April 4-August 3, 1997).
title: Treasures on Paper from the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art
opening date: 2014-03-09T00:00:00
Treasures on Paper from the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (March 9-June 8, 2014).
title: Monotypes: Painterly Prints
opening date: 2015-05-31T00:00:00
Monotypes: Painterly Prints. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (May 31-October 11, 2015).
title: A Lasting Impression: Gifts of the Print Club of Cleveland
opening date: 2019-05-05T04:00:00
A Lasting Impression: Gifts of the Print Club of Cleveland. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 5-September 22, 2019).
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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS
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PROVENANCE
(Peter H. Deitsch, New York, NY, sold to the Print Club of Cleveland, Cleveland, OH)
date: ?-1954
footnotes:
citations:
Print Club of Cleveland, Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
date: 1954
footnotes:
citations:
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
date: 1954-
footnotes:
citations:
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fun fact:
This print is one of the few works that can be dated to Maurice Prendergast's early years in Paris.
digital description:
Maurice Prendergast began to make monotypes in the early 1890s while living in Paris, where he was influenced by Edgar Degas's use of the technique. Prendergast focused on scenes from daily life, such as this depiction of crowds filling the streets of the French capital on the country's national holiday. He used layers of blue and black ink to evoke the shadowy tones of nighttime and orbs of bright pink to suggest the artificial light of lanterns illuminating the boulevards.
wall description:
Like Edgar Degas, Prendergast was a skilled and devoted practitioner of monotype, a technique he began to investigate in Paris about 1891 or 1892, perhaps having seen examples of the French artist’s work in this medium. He was influenced by the flattened space and emphasis on surface pattern of ukiyo-e (Japanese color woodcuts) as well as the etchings of James McNeill Whistler, who used ink left on the surface of the printing plate to create evocative atmospheric effects. Prendergast produced beautiful colored monotypes documenting the pastimes of stylish urbanites. Bastille Day, one of the few works that can be dated to the artist’s early years in Paris, distills the scene of lanterns illuminating the boulevards to an almost abstract composition of reflective colored light and bustling crowds.
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