Swinging in the Square

Sloan made several versions of this young girl on a swing, a scene he witnessed in 1906: “Walked down to the East Side this afternoon, enjoyed watching the girls swinging in the Square [Tompkins Square], Avenue A and 8th Street East. A fat man watching seated on a bench.” Sloan, who never had children of his own, was a strong advocate of women’s rights and felt that a woman’s individuality and intelligence was too often constrained by her roles of wife and mother. About this print, he explained, “I have always had enthusiastic interest in unspoiled girlhood. . . . Growth toward real womanhood is often checked at about this age.”