Holiday, Headlands 1905

Maurice Prendergast captured this holiday scene in the Headlands with watercolor on paper. Look at the blues and grays, how they bleed and blend! I can imagine him dabbing the brush, letting the colors run into each other, trusting the process. You can almost feel the damp air and hear the distant chatter of holidaymakers. I'm picturing Prendergast, squinting in the sun, trying to capture a fleeting moment of leisure, like a visual poem, each stroke a verse. The way the figures are rendered, like little daubs of color, reminds me of Bonnard, each artist trying to distill the essence of a scene. It's like they are all in conversation together, sharing ideas across time. The whole thing feels so immediate, so alive.