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Portrait of a Boy

Artist Maurice Brazil Prendergast (American, born Canada, 1858 - 1924)
Dateca. 1910-1913
MediumOil on canvas; mounted on Masonite
DimensionsUnframed: 18 5/8 × 15 1/4 inches (47.31 × 38.74 cm)
Framed: 25 7/16 × 22 3/8 × 1 1/4 inches (64.61 × 56.83 × 3.18 cm)
Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust through the generosity of Mr. and Mrs. Milton McGreevy through the Westport Fund
Object number44-23
SignedNone
On View
Not on view
Collections
DescriptionHalf-length portrait of a boy in tan coat with dark brown collar and wide cravat at neck. Purple flower on proper left lapel.Published References
H. C., “Prendergast’s Art Shown in Memorial,” Art News 23
(21 February 1925), 2; “The World of Art: A Memorial Exhibition
and Some Books,” New York Times Magazine, 1 March 1925, 16;
Special Exhibition: Sculpture by Nancy Cox-McCormack, Mural
Paintings by Puvis de Chavannes, Albert Besnard and the National
Society of Mural Painters, Decorative Paintings by Eduard Buk
Ulreivch, Drawings and Lithographs by C. O. Woodbury, Paintings by Maurice Prendergast, exh. cat. (Chicago: Art Institute of
Chicago, 1925), unpaginated (as Portrait Study of a Boy); Margaret Breuning, Maurice Prendergast (New York: Whitney Museum
of American Art, 1931), 10, 20–21 (as Head of a Boy); “Deaf Prendergast, Dead Ten Years, Presents His ‘Still Domain,’” Art Digest
8 (1 March 1934), 10 (as Head of a Boy); Maurice Prendergast
Memorial Exhibition, exh. cat. (New York: Whitney Museum of
American Art, 1934), 16 (as Head of a Boy); American Art Association, Anderson Galleries, New York, 29 April–1 May 1937, lot
55; “Paintings and Prints Sold at Auction,” American Art Annual
34 (1937–38), 641; The Prendergasts: Retrospective Exhibition of
the Work of Maurice and Charles Prendergast, exh. cat. (Andover,
Mass.: Addison Gallery, 1938), 22; “The Westport Fund Makes a
Gift to Art,” Kansas City Star, 16 July 1944, 8D; “Events of Midsummer,” New York Times, 6 August 1944, X2; “From Time to
Time the Westport Fund Is the Agency through Which Important American Paintings Enter the William Rockhill Nelson Art
Gallery of Kansas City,” Art Digest 18 (August 1944), 15; “Gift of
Contemporary American Paintings,” Gallery News (William Rock-
hill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts)
10 (August–September 1944), 5; “Modern Painters Are Aided by
the Friends of Art,” Kansas City Star, 13 April 1947, 9D; Winifred Shields, “A Special Collection of Works Is Growing at Nelson Gallery,” Kansas City Star, 19 May 1950, 28; Hedley Howell
Rhys, “Maurice Prendergast: The Sources and Development of
His Style,” Ph.D. diss., Harvard University, 1952, 116, 165; NAMA
1959, 257; Hedley Howell Rhys, Maurice Prendergast, 1859–1924,
exh. cat. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1960), 50,
71, 136; NAMA 1973, 254; “America VI: The Eight; Painters of the
New Society,” in American Series: A Catalogue of Eight Exhibitions, exh. cat. (San Jose, Calif.: San Jose Museum of Art, 1978),
unpaginated; Constance H. Schwartz, The Shock of Modernism
in America: The Eight and Artists of the Armory Show, exh. cat.
(Roslyn Harbor, N.Y.: Nassau County Museum of Fine Art, 1984),
30; Portraits by the Prendergasts, exh. cat. (Williamstown, Mass.:
Williams College Museum of Art, 1985), unpaginated; Carol Clark,
Nancy Mowll Mathews, and Gwendolyn Owens, Maurice Brazil
Prendergast, Charles Prendergast: A Catalogue Raisonné (Williamstown, Mass.: Williams College Museum of Art; Munich: Prestel-
Verlag, 1990), 21, 280–81; NAMA 1991, 144–45.
Information about a particular artwork or image, including provenance information, is based upon historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete. Research on artwork and images is an ongoing process, and the information about a particular artwork or image may not reflect the most current information available to the Museum. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about a particular artwork or image, please e-mail provenance@nelson-atkins.org.


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