Three Little Girls in Red by Maurice Prendergast

Three Little Girls in Red 1895

0:00
0:00

Dimensions: 14.29 x 15.24 cm

Copyright: Public domain

Curator: The overall tone feels muted, almost secretive, doesn't it? Like a scene glimpsed through fog. Editor: Indeed. This is Maurice Prendergast's "Three Little Girls in Red," an oil executed around 1895. He captures a street scene with an unusual composition. Curator: Composition is right. Look at how the figures are arranged. The repetition of shapes, particularly the red cloaks, creates a rhythm, a visual beat that structures the entire work. Editor: Prendergast was working at a fascinating moment in urban history. Consider the growth of cities at this time. Genre paintings, like this, were beginning to document the rising role of public space, the promenade as a spectacle for the social classes. Curator: But consider the surface. It's quite textured, almost crusty. Look at the way the brushstrokes build up the cobblestones underfoot. The materiality is very present; each stroke contributing to the atmospheric effect. Editor: Those cloaks are striking. That splash of red in what is otherwise a subdued palette has real cultural power, symbolizing childhood innocence, or perhaps something else? We know in Europe red was a mark of aristocracy...it contrasts nicely against the subdued palette. The faceless, indistinct figures may signal their ambiguous place in this class system, too. Curator: The lack of individualized features reinforces a sense of universality. The painting transcends portraiture, becoming an exploration of form and color, a study in contrasts. Editor: And Prendergast was keen on printmaking, too. I am keen to examine that background. I sense that preoccupation and those themes in the layers and planes represented in oil, and on the canvas itself. He is an observer looking, watching, and recording. A new way to capture urban experience. Curator: An experience we can now also share through his brilliant visual vocabulary. Editor: An interesting way to witness the growth of society at the turn of the century!

Show more

Comments

No comments

Be the first to comment and join the conversation on the ultimate creative platform.