Landscape with Figures 1913

Maurice Prendergast created "Landscape with Figures" with oil paint, using small dabs and strokes that build up a world rather than describe it. Looking closely, the painting is all about materiality; it's not just the scene, but the thick texture, the way the colors sit next to each other. You can almost feel the brushstrokes. The trees, the people – they're all made of the same stuff, little daubs of color, like mosaic tiles. Notice the red hats; they're not just red, they're a mix of reds and oranges, with little bits of white peeking through, giving them this lively, vibrating quality. It's almost Fauvist, like Matisse, in its joyful use of color, where the process becomes the subject. It’s not about perfection or realism, but a certain energy and joy in the act of painting. It's this exchange, this back and forth between seeing and doing, that makes the painting so engaging.