Maurice Prendergast

Marblehead Harbor

c. 1918–1920
Oil on canvas
45.7 × 61.3 cm (18 × 24.1 in)

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● On view now — Collection Gallery, Room 12, East Wall

Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia · verified July 2026

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FROM THE BARNES FOUNDATION’S CATALOG

A few figures, probably fishermen, wade amid rowboats or crouch at the water's edge. On the distant shore, clapboard houses nestle between trees and hills, and the scene's cool light suggests the coming of evening or autumn. Dr. Barnes wrote that " Marblehead Harbor represents the height of [Prendergast's] powers in achieving a design by means of his own technique... As a result, the whole canvas is a succession of contrasts of line, color, mass and spatial relations, that give rise to a series of rhythms comparable to those of a Bach fugue." This was the last work he acquired by Maurice Prendergast.

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