Prendergast, Maurice (b St John’s, Nfld, 10 Oct 1858; d New York, 1 Feb 1924).

American painter, printmaker, illustrator and designer of Canadian birth. He moved with his family to Boston in 1868 and was working as a commercial artist by 1886, lettering showcards, but his early attempts at watercolour foretold little of the talent that emerged after he travelled to Paris in January 1891. He studied for three years at the Atelier Colarossi under Gustave Courtois (1853–1923), and later at the Académie Julian under Benjamin Constant, Joseph Blanc and Jean-Paul Laurens. Here the influence of the Nabis and of Whistler was particularly important to his development.