Maurice B. Prendergast 1858-1924

Maurice Prendergast completed Sunset, Boston shortly after the artist returned from a four year sojourn in Paris, where he had gone in 1891 to acquire his first formal training in art. His experience there transformed him from a gifted amateur into a polished professional who had absorbed multiple influences, especially the bright hues and quick brushwork of the Impressionists. Upon his return, Prendergast painted views that featured the city at play, and he was one of the first artists to portray contemporary Bostonians taking advantage of the city's new parks and pleasure grounds. One popular destination was the new Marine Park located at the far eastern edge of South Boston. On Sunday's in particular, the park, which featured a grand serpentine pier that extended out into the bay, attracted thousands of Bostonians who sought the fresh air, sunshine, and the opportunity to stroll in public dressed in their finest attire. In the mid-1890s Prendergast painted a series of works featuring the pier and the waterside promenade in Marine Park. Of Prendergast's waterfront scenes, Milton W. Brown writes: "The South Boston Pier pictures ... established him as an original and quite individual talent (Maurice Brazil Prendergast, Charles Prendergast: A Catalogue Raisonné, 1990, pp. 18-19).

In Sunset, Boston the late afternoon sun has begun to dip below Boston's city skyline, which is silhouetted in a deep blue shade. The setting sun, depicted as an orange disk, is reflected on the surface of the bay.  Prendergast incorporates the same reflected sun motif in several of his related works such as the watercolor South Boston Pier, Sunset (ca. 1895-1897, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston). The day's crowds have dissipated, and aside from a lingering couple in the background, Prendergast features an elegantly dressed, woman. Prendergast often depicted well-dressed women in his depictions of urban leisure and he had an acute sense of observation with regard to fashion and comportment. In Sunset, Boston Prendergast details the hourglass shape of the woman's corseted physique, her high neckline, and the demure gesture of her right hand in which she gathers up her long skirt to keep it from touching the ground.