Maurice Brazil Prendergast was an American post-impressionist watercolorist. He technically belonged to the Ashcan School but his delicate compositions had nothing in common with the group's philosophy. After his father's trading post failed, his family moved to Boston, New England. There, he learned his trade from a commercial painter. Of a shy temperament, Prendergast remained single all his life. He remained strongly attached to his brother Charles, also an artist. He went to study in Paris at the Atelier Colarossi and the Académie Julian. It was in the French capital that he met the Canadian painter James Morrice, who introduced him to the circle of English avant-gardists Walter Sickert and Aubrey Beardsley.