Portrait of Mrs. Oliver E. Williams

Artist Maurice Prendergast (American, 1858 - 1924)

Date1902

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsCanvas: 24 × 24 inches (61 × 61 cm)
Framed: 42 1/2 × 32 1/2 inches (108 × 82.6 cm)

Credit LineGift of an anonymous donor

Object number2024.12

On View

On view

CopyrightThe images and text contained on this page are owned by Telfair Museums or used by the Museum with permission from the owners. Unauthorized reproduction, transmission or display of these materials is prohibited with the exception of items deemed “fair use” as defined by U.S. and international copyright laws.Label TextAmerican artist Maurice Prendergast spent much of his youth in Boston, where he began his career painting advertisements for store windows. He traveled throughout Europe with his brother Charles and undertook formal training in Paris. In the United States, Prendergast frequently depicted people enjoying outdoor leisure time, as seen in this portrait of his friend and fellow artist Esther Baldwin Williams (1867–1964), her nurse Annie Sargent Jewett (b. 1872), and her infant son Thomas at their summer home in Annisquam, Massachusetts. Prendergast’s loose strokes of bold colors demonstrate the impact of French post-Impressionist artists on his work, and the flattened perspective and bold lines around the figures reveal the expansive influence of Japanese woodblock prints on artists of this period.

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