The first photo shoot of 2013 is complete!

We now have 104 images of books from the Prendergast Study Center. The collection ranges in date from 1666 through 1953 and covers a wide variety of topics including travel guides and maps of Italy and France, exhibition catalogs, works from well-known authors such as Voltaire, Rousseau, Virgil, Hugo, Shakespeare, Milton and Cicero, as well as several books on art.

In addition to books about American, French, and Italian artists, the collection also includes books about Eastern, Middle Eastern, Mythological, Ancient, and Peasant art, showing that the Prendergasts gained inspiration from a wide variety of art forms.

An interesting detail from a catalog titled Second Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting (1934) is the inclusion of artists’ names and addresses.  Charles’s address is simply listed as Westport, CT but other artists, including Georgia O’Keefe, list their full addresses, something that would likely never be seen today.

A 1923 book titled An Approach to Art, published just one year before Maurice’s death, features works from both Maurice and Charles alongside works by other famous contemporaries such as Matisse, Degas, Cezanne, Renoir, Picasso, and Van Gogh. It is interesting to find an artwork by Charles published at this early date.

The photography team will return in early March to take more photos of the Prendergast book collection.