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Flowers in a Vase (Zinnias)

Maurice Brazil Prendergast

American Art

On View: American Art Galleries, 5th Floor, To Give Flowers

Flowers in a Vase is one of approximately ten canvases painted by Maurice Prendergast between 1910 and 1913 that feature a simple tabletop arrangement of flowers. In these he synthesized his understanding of the art of the French artists Paul Cézanne and Henri Matisse to arrive at his own decorative Post-Impressionist style. He used deliberate, broadly applied strokes of a paint-loaded brush to describe both form and space--a technique that creates an allover surface of patterns reminiscent of a mosaic.

MEDIUM Oil on canvas
DATES ca. 1910–1913
DIMENSIONS 23 1/4 x 25 3/16 in. (59.1 x 64 cm) Frame: 27 5/8 x 29 7/8 x 2 3/8 in. (70.2 x 75.9 x 6 cm)  (show scale)
SIGNATURE Signed lower right: "Prendergast"
COLLECTIONS American Art
ACCESSION NUMBER 39.53
CREDIT LINE Gift of Frank L. Babbott, Jr.
PROVENANCE Prior provenance not yet documented; before 1926, acquired by Kraushaar Galleries, New York, NY; by 1926, acquired, possibly from Kraushaar Galleries, by Frank Lusk Babbott of Brooklyn, NY; 1933, inherited from Frank Lusk Babbott by Frank Lusk Babbott, Jr. March 1939, gift of Frank Lusk Babbott, Jr. to the Brooklyn Museum.
Provenance FAQ
MUSEUM LOCATION This item is on view in American Art Galleries, 5th Floor, To Give Flowers
CAPTION Maurice Brazil Prendergast (American, 1858–1924). Flowers in a Vase (Zinnias), ca. 1910–1913. Oil on canvas, 23 1/4 x 25 3/16 in. (59.1 x 64 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Frank L. Babbott, Jr., 39.53 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 39.53_SL3.jpg)
IMAGE overall, 39.53_SL3.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2024
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