Every year I resolve to be more faithful in my sketchbook practice. This year, I have fueled enthusiasm for my resolution by revisiting another artist's sketchbook--one that was kept by Maurice Prendergast around 1899. I happened on this little treasure in a used book store, and couldn't resist bringing it home. It's an exact reproduction of the actual sketchbook kept by Prendergast. (The original has been donated to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts). My book lay fallow for a while, but when I eventually delved in, I was delighted.
The pages in the Prendergast book are a delight of color and motion--as the accompanying material says, "fleeting impressions of...women in holiday garb...the edge of the sea, sunlit parks and woodlands....gay parasols over extravagant bonnets". The Gilded Age, indeed! The book has both watercolors and pencil drawings.
Interestingly, a number of the watercolors were painted on separate sheets, and afterwards attached to the pages of the sketchbook. I felt a kinship with Prendergast when I learned that--it sounded like something I might do, rather than plunging right into the sketchbook itself. Was he cautious about wasting pages of the sketchbook on drawings that didn't work out? Did he choose the watercolors to attach to the sketchbook because they were the most accomplished (leaving out the rejects, so the book would be pretty)? Or did he choose them because they were seeds of ideas for further paintings, and he wanted to keep them front of mind, and close at hand?
Nevermind the answer to those questions. The important thing is the practice of keeping the sketchbook. I did some further research online, and was especially inspired by Prendergast's sketches from Paris, like the top image in this post. I'm planning a trip to Paris this year, and the sketchbook will definitely go with me. Mine may never be part of a museum collection, but it will still be a treasure to me!
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