Maurice Prendergast spent his entire life in the pursuit of art. The Venice cityscape dominates his work of the period when he arrived at a heightened command of the elusive and difficult medium of watercolor. An atmosphere of pageantry prevails in Prendergast's paintings of Venice's great public spaces. In Procession, Venice, Prendergast used watercolor's transparent properties to maximum effect, laying in clearly separated color notes while keeping overlapping passages of wash to a minimum.