Landscape with Figures

Maurice Prendergast

National Gallery of Art

About a dozen people, mostly or all women, sit or stand in a loose row under a band of trees close to us in a park with water in the near distance in this stylized horizontal painting. The trees reach off the top edge of the canvas, and tufts of leaves are painted with dabs of moss, mint, and forest green with a few touches of marigold orange. The women all appear to have peachy or nearly white-colored skin and shades of brown hair. Their bodies and dresses are outlined in black, dark blue, or dark red. They are painted loosely and almost without facial features. They wear dresses in shades of coral red, pale yellow, muted blue, light lilac purple. A person sitting in the lower left corner wears a dark pink cap, and a dog stands to one side. Two sailboats float in the body of water beyond the grassy park. The water is painted pale mint green. A strip of land on the far side of the water is painted in tones of pale tan and purple, and the sky above is mottled parchment white and light slate blue, and the sun is a golden yellow disk to the left.