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	Maurice Prendergast U.S., 1859-1924 South Side Hills, n.d. 13 7/6 x 19 3/8 in. Watercolor Gift of Jerome Westheimer, 1998

Prendergast was born in Newfoundland and raised in Boston. Like many American artists of his generation, he studied in Europe, first at Paris's Académie Julian. Unimpressed with the discipline of the academy, Prendergast followed other members of the avant-garde who found their subjects in the cafes and gardens of Paris. He absorbed the lessons of the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, and on later trips to Italy he found inspiration in the rich color of early Renaissance frescoes and the Italian masters. Works like South Side Hills have been compared to Byzantine mosaics in which gems of pure color create a flat pattern across the surface. South Side Hills depicts an area on the harbor of the artist's birthplace, St. John's, Newfoundland.