American Art

Provenance:

The Artist

Esther Baldwin Williams

Esther Williams McKinney, 1964

Knoedler Galleries, New York, 1965

Michael Drinkhouse, 1973

Steven Juvelis, Lynn, Massachusetts

M. Knoedler & Co., New York, 1979

Virginia Fine Arts, Norfolk, 1980

James Kline, 1980

Sold: Christie's, New York, December 6, 1985, Lot 6052

Private Collection, acquired at the above sale

Thence by descent to the present owner

Exhibited:

New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Maurice Prendergast Memorial Exhibition, February 21 - March 22, 1934, no. 102 (as Portrait Study of Mrs. W.)

Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Maurice Prendergast 1859-1924, October 26 - December 4, 1960, no. 11, illus. (and traveling)

New York, Knoedler Galleries, Paintings and Watercolor by Maurice Prendergast: A Loan Exhibition, November 1 - 26, 1966, no. 22, illus.

New York, M. Knoedler & Co., American Paintings, May 20 - June 20, 1969, no. 80

College Park, Maryland, University of Maryland Art Gallery, Maurice Prendergast: Art of Impulse and Color, September 1 - October 6, 1976, no. 48, illus. (as Mrs. Oliver Williams) [and traveling]

Norfolk, Virginia, Chrysler Museum, Hampton Road Collects, July 13 - September 2, 1984, p. 53, illus.

Williamstown, Massachusetts, Williams College Museum of Art, Portraits of the Prendergasts, October 19, 1984 - March 24, 1985, no. 8

Literature:

Hedley Howell Rhys, Maurice Prendergast: The Sources and Development of His Styles, Ph.D. diss., Harvard University, 1952, pp. 95; 165

Hedley Howell Rhys, "Maurice B. Prendergast," Maurice Prendergast 1859-1924, Boston, 1960, p. 48

Hilton Kramer, "Prendergast: An American in the Camp of Cezanne," New York Times, November 6, 1966, p. D13

Doreen Bolger Burke, A Catalogue of Works by Artists Born between 1846-1864, vol. 3 of American Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1960, p. 338

Carol Clark, Nancy Mowll Mathews, and Gwendolyn Owens, Maurice Brazil Prendergast, Charles Prendergast: A Catalogue Raisonné, Williamstown, Massachusetts, 1990, p. 224, no. 49, illus.

Lot note:

At the age of 35, shortly after the birth of her second son, Thomas, on April 15, 1902, Esther Baldwin Williams (Mrs. Oliver Williams, 1867-1964) was painted by her friend and fellow artist, Maurice Prendergast. The picture is set outside and depicts Mrs. Williams in bold, painterly strokes standing to the left of the center in a long white summer dress. She holds a closed, off-white parasol by her side and wears a black necklace. To her right is a white Windsor chair, behind which stands a red aproned baby nurse, who holds the infant son. The nurse is Annie Sargent Jewett, who was painted both by Mrs. Williams and Prendergast around 1905. Prendergast’s portrait of Annie, and Mrs. Williams’ watercolor version of the oil, are now both in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Although the Williams family’s primary residence was 86 Mt. Vernon Street on Beacon Hill, Boston, the portrait was painted at the Williams family’s nearby seaside summer home in Annisquam, Massachusetts. The Williams met Maurice Prendergast and his brother, Charles, in 1900 in Winchester, Massachusetts, the summer Esther and her husband rented a house there. Maurice and Charles also lived in the town and were described by Esther as “charming fellows” in her diary. Back in Boston, Mrs. Williams and Maurice shared a studio for a time on the top floor of the Mt. Vernon Street home. After the Williams purchased their house in Annisquam in 1901, both brothers were invited to visit.

Born in 1867, Esther Baldwin Williams was born Esther Mabel Baldwin to a prominent Boston family of artists. As a teenager, she began her art education under her uncle Joseph Foxcroft Cole and worked with her cousin Adelaide Chase Cole. Adelaide and Esther shared a studio in Greenwich Village in 1888, where they attended art lessons. The two cousins also traveled to Paris in 1877 and 1891 to paint. Both Esther and Maurice Prendergast shared a passion for modern French art, and Prendergast himself studied in Paris from 1891-94. It was in Paris that the artist developed his style, influenced by Japanese prints, Art Nouveau, James McNeill Whistler, and the Nabis artists Pierre Bonnard, Edouard Vuillard, and Maurice Denis. Prendergast’s compositions came to be characterized by flat, mosaic-like strokes of color that are combined with a compression of perspective and scale. After the birth of her third child, Mrs. Williams continued to paint portraits of individuals in her social circle, but primarily focused on her family rather than pursuing a professional career.  

The portrait of Mrs. Williams remained in her possession until she died at age 97 in 1964. The painting was first publicly exhibited at Maurice Prendergast’s memorial exhibition at the Whitney Museum in 1934. Prendergast’s letters to Mrs. Williams are preserved in the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. They include vivid descriptions of Prendergast’s encounters with the work of Cezanne, Vuillard, and other progressive French artists, as well as thanks to Esther Williams for her continuing friendship and patronage.