This selection of works in a variety of media focuses on Maurice Prendergast's creative process as he imaginatively and innovatively captured the look and feel of coastlines from New England to France and Italy. The seaside watercolors, paintings, monotypes, and sketches of Maurice Prendergast invite viewers into a world of sunlight and sailboats, leisure and amusement. Accompanying the first retrospective of Prendergast's work in more than two decades, this book traces the artist's experiments with different media and highlights innovative techniques that established his reputation as early modernist. Filled with exquisite reproductions of Prendergast's luminous work--well-known masterpieces and rarely seen, equally compelling examples--this volume also features contributions by an impressive roster of distinguished scholars whose essays provide fresh ways of thinking about a quintessentially American artist. Sumptuously illustrated, this appealing volume celebrates one of the nation's most popular and canonical painters.