Evening on a Pleasure Boat 1898

Maurice Prendergast made this oil sketch on panel of women on a pleasure boat sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century. The quick, loose brushstrokes and flattened perspective align Prendergast with the Impressionist movement that was then challenging the traditional art establishment. While Prendergast's Impressionist peers often depicted scenes of modern Parisian life, this is an image of leisure among the upper classes in America, likely Boston, where he spent much of his career. The women are stylishly dressed and are enjoying what was a new form of public recreation. Prendergast made many similar paintings and watercolors, and it’s worth asking why he was drawn to these scenes of women at leisure. As art historians, we might consider the ways gender and class shaped social experience in the United States at this time. Research into etiquette manuals, fashion magazines, and other historical sources can help us to reconstruct the world represented in this small painting.