Maurice Prendergast was born in Newfoundland and moved to Boston as a child. He was apprenticed to a commercial artist. Between 1891 and 1895 he studied painting in Paris at the Académie Colarossi and the Académie Julian. He studied the work of Vincent van Gogh and Georges Seurat, and his acquaintances included Édouard Vuillard and Pierre Bonnard. Based in part on their post-impressionist aesthetics, Prendergast developed a highly individual style, working largely in watercolor and monoprinting. In 1900 he had major exhibitions at the Art Institute of Chicago and Macbeth Gallery in New York, which earned him critical attention. In 1908 he joined with progressive painters Robert Henri, John Sloan, Everett Shinn, George Luks, Arthur B. Davies, Ernest Lawson, and William Glackens for a group exhibition at Macbeth's. The group would become known as the Eight and the exhibition is now considered a watershed in American art. Unlike some of his friends in the Eight, who would eventually become known as the Ashcan School, Prendergast did not paint scenes of urban life. He preferred leisure scenes featuring women and the seaside.
