The Donkey Driver 1923

Maurice Prendergast made this watercolor painting, ‘The Donkey Driver,’ probably in the early 1900s, with loose washes of color suggesting a crowded beach scene. Looking at it, I imagine Prendergast with his paper and brush, quickly capturing the scene before him, trying to get the figures just so. It’s a little like a puzzle: how to arrange all these bodies, animals, and colors. The paint is thin and transparent, with a light, airy feeling, leaving the white of the paper to peek through. See how the blue washes define the sea in the background, but also how the blue is picked up in the clothing of the figures, uniting the composition. It makes me think about Bonnard and Vuillard, other painters of the time who were interested in capturing everyday life, but with a kind of dreamlike haziness. It’s like they all knew painting could be more about feeling than seeing, and how that feeling is a conversation through time. It’s a reminder that painting is always a dialogue, each artist responding to those who came before, and that the story keeps unfolding.