Beach Scene with Two Trees

Discussion

FROM THE BARNES FOUNDATION’S CATALOG

This work depicts a panorama of brightly dressed figures before deep blue water and a sky streaked with tangerine-colored clouds. Two leafy trees dominate the scene. With this painting, Prendergast reworked the composition of his Salem Willows (1904; Terra Foundation for American Art)—which evoked the crowded scenes of early Italian wall paintings—according to new techniques that he had learned from Paul Cézanne, Henri-Edmond Cross, and Paul Signac during a trip to France in 1907. His Holiday (1908–9; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco) replicates this effort in mainly pink and lilac hues.

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