The Beach

Discussion

FROM THE BARNES FOUNDATION’S CATALOG

This scene of crowds by the sea is a dazzling visual encyclopedia of styles and ideas that Prendergast had explored since the 1890s. Here, he invigorates the composition of his early watercolor Low Tide, Beachmont (Worcester Art Museum, c. 1902-04) with techniques adapted from medieval and Renaissance mosaics and tapestries as well as from paintings by modernist artists including Cézanne, Signac, Puvis de Chavannes, and Renoir—even the hills beyond the water appear to be a variant of Cézanne's beloved Mont Sainte-Victoire. Indeed, Prendergast once proclaimed, "Genius is the power of assimilation."

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