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Piazza di San Marco

ca. 1898–99
Not on view
Prendergast’s first visit (of two) to Venice was financed by his Boston patron Sarah Choate Sears. About a year into his eighteen-month stay, he wrote to his brother, the painter Charles Prendergast, "It has been the visit of my life. I have been here almost a year and have seen so many beautiful things." His time in Venice inspired some of his most successful and dynamic watercolors. Here, Prendergast depicts an unusual prospect of the Piazza di San Marco, the city’s most distinctive tourist site and the center of Venetian life. Within the square composition, space is compressed and the scale is striking—three Italian flags dominate the foreground, while San Marco’s iconic tower is truncated in the background. Diminutive figures dot the piazza below, and at left the space expands with a view of the distant lagoon.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Piazza di San Marco
  • Artist: Maurice Brazil Prendergast (American, St. John’s, Newfoundland 1858–1924 New York)
  • Date: ca. 1898–99
  • Culture: American
  • Medium: Watercolor and graphite on off-white wove paper
  • Dimensions: 16 11/16 x 15 3/8 in. (42.4 x 39.1 cm)
  • Credit Line: Gift of Estate of Mrs. Edward Robinson, 1952
  • Object Number: 52.126.6
  • Curatorial Department: The American Wing

More Artwork

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Inside the Bar, Winslow Homer American, Watercolor and graphite on off-white wove paper, American
Inside the Bar
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Schreckhorn, Eismeer (from "Splendid Mountain Watercolours" Sketchbook), John Singer Sargent American, Watercolor and graphite on off-white wove paper, American
Schreckhorn, Eismeer (from "Splendid Mountain Watercolours" Sketchbook)
John Singer Sargent
1870
Frau von Allmen and an Unidentified Man in an Interior, verso (from "Splendid Mountain Watercolours" Sketchbook), John Singer Sargent American, Watercolor and graphite on off-white wove paper, American
Frau von Allmen and an Unidentified Man in an Interior, verso (from "Splendid Mountain Watercolours" Sketchbook)
John Singer Sargent
1870
The Dancing Lesson, Thomas Eakins American, Watercolor on off-white wove paper, American
The Dancing Lesson
Thomas Eakins
1878
Market Place, John Singer Sargent American, Watercolor, gouache, and graphite on white wove paper, American
Market Place
John Singer Sargent
1890s

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Maurice Brazil Prendergast - Piazza di San Marco - American - The Metropolitan Museum of Art