Considered the first American to champion the art of Cézanne in America, Maurice Prendergast found profound inspiration in the work of the Post-Impressionist masters which, despite his self-taught background, played a significant role in his painting career from 1908 onward. Like the Impressionists in Paris where he studied from 1891 to 1894, Prendergast took his primary inspiration from daily life using crowded beaches and parks and busy sidewalks to create paintings modern both in style and in subject. The present work descriptively titled ‘Trees against mountain’ is a study that captures the fleeting experience of nature in its energetic use of color and brushwork.

Prendergast's works suggest an adaptation of several stylistic innovations of the progressive European artists, particularly Cézanne, Matisse and Seurat. Prendergast, however, ‘never borrowed mannerism, he used only what he needed, and transformed what he borrowed into his own image.’ (C. Clark, et al., Maurice Brazil Prendergast and Charles Prendergast: A Catalogue Raisonné, Williamstown, Massachusetts, 1990, p. 22) As a result, Prendergast developed an innovative style that made him one of most modern artists working during this period.