Seashore with Figures

The fashionable beaches of New England, filled with bathers in multi-hued attire, were well suited to serve as subject matter for Prendergast's dazzling displays of color. Seashore is one of many similarly titled oil paintings that Prendergast did in the early years of the twentieth century. Its composition demonstrates the modernist elements the artist brought to his work - the broad horizontal bands of color, indistinct figures, thick, textured brushstrokes - all combining to form a patterned surface that exhibits both a fascinating complexity and a childlike exuberance. Works such as Seashore form an important link between the impressionist styles of the late nineteenth century and the newer traditions of modernism in the United States.