The Swans 1915

Maurice Prendergast made "The Swans" with oil on canvas at an unknown date. Look at the tiny confetti dots of color! I imagine Prendergast building up the image one stroke at a time, each dab a small decision, a little world of its own. I can almost feel his concentration, the way he must have been feeling the surface and the paint in his hand, trying to conjure up a mood of leisure and pleasure. The paint seems relatively thick, not quite impasto, but generous and tactile. It reminds me of Vuillard, the French painter, who also loved to evoke interiority and feeling through close looking and careful mark-making. See how the women are placed in the picture, among the trees and swans? I wonder if he was trying to echo the rounded shapes of the swans in the women’s dresses. I love how one painter can riff off another, how there’s this big conversation going on across time.