Public data from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Learn more
About the Artwork
Maurice Prendergast worked primarily in watercolor, and Central Park—seen in this drawing— was one of his favorite subjects. He regularly visited the popular public area in New York City during the early 1900s, while he was living in Boston. Prendergast's depictions of Central Park often focus on festivities and celebrations, continuing a theme he had explored in other cities, such as Paris and Venice. Here, the artist depicted children celebrating May Day by dancing with colorful ribbons around a Maypole on a sunny day. He worked with rapid, loose marks, leaving portions of the paper visible to create highlights throughout. Prendergast was drawn to this subject, and revisited it many times.
Inscriptions
signed, across bottom, in brown ink: Maurice B. Prendergast Central Park. 1901. / New York.; verso, upper left, in graphite: No 22; center, in graphite: May Day Central Park
Provenance
1926: (Kraushaar Galleries, New York, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH) 1926-: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Exhibition history
The Maurice Prendergast Memorial Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 15-February 15, 1926). Painting Today and Yesterday in the United States. Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA (organizer) (June 5-September 1, 1941). Watercolor USA: A Survey of Watercolor from 1870 to 1946. Walker Art Center (organizer) (April 24-May 28, 1946); National Gallery of Art (May 17-August 1, 1946). Maurice Prendergast: 1859-1924. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (June 21-July 30, 1961). Eight American Masters of Watercolor: Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, Maurice B. Prendergast, John Marin, Arthur G. Dove, Charles Demuth, Charles E. Burchfield, Andrew Wyeth. Los Angeles County Museum of Art (April 23-June 16, 1968); Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, de Young Museum (June 28-August 18, 1968); Seattle Art Museum (September 5-October 13, 1968). American Water Colors from the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (July 23-September 25, 1974). Five American Masters of Watercolor. Terra Museum of American Art (organizer) (May 5-July 12, 1981). Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000); The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (May 23-August 19, 2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (October 14, 2001-January 6, 2002). Gallery One 2012. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 12, 2012-March 5, 2017).
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Maurice Prendergast (American, born Newfoundland [now Canada], 1858–1924)
- Date
- 1901
- Medium
- watercolor over graphite
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 35.4 x 50.6 cm (13 15/16 x 19 15/16 in.)
- Type
- Drawing
- Classification
- Drawing
- Department
- Drawings
- Credit line
- Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
- Accession no.
- 1926.17
More by Maurice Prendergast in museum collections
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Open-access museum record · AT-00010971
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