Child's Wheelbarrow
1 of 4
Object Label
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.”
Caption
Gerrit Th. Rietveld Dutch, 1888–1964; G.A. van de Groenekan. Child's Wheelbarrow, designed 1923; made 1958. Wood. pigment, metal, 13 × 27 1/2 × 11 in. (33 × 69.9 × 27.9 cm) display measurement: 13 × 11 × 29 in. (33 × 27.9 × 73.7 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Marie Bernice Bitzer Fund, 2001.87. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.2001.87_threequarter_back.jpg)
Designer
Title
Child's Wheelbarrow
Date
designed 1923; made 1958
Geography
Place made: Netherlands
Medium
Wood. pigment, metal
Classification
Dimensions
13 × 27 1/2 × 11 in. (33 × 69.9 × 27.9 cm) display measurement: 13 × 11 × 29 in. (33 × 27.9 × 73.7 cm)
Credit Line
Marie Bernice Bitzer Fund
Accession Number
2001.87
Rights
Creative Commons-BY
You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
Frequent Art Questions
Did Rietveld design any other toys in his career?
Yes, he did, we have in our collections a dollhouse that he also designed. Rietveld himself had six children, and many of his friends had kids, for whom he created toys. The dollhouse in particular was designed for the children of his friends, the Jesse family.Was Rietveld's furniture expensive when it was first produced? What kinds of people had access to buy it?
It was definitely an avant-garde style, and a very utopian one. Architects and designers were seeking ways to renew society after the first World War. In other words, it wasn't a style to everyone's taste. It was highly non-traditional, with its use of primary colors and its simple, visible means of construction.He made many pieces for himself and his close acquaintances, knowing that it would only have a small audience because it was so experimental.That answers my question, thanks. I was interested in whether a general audience could access these items, or if they were more people in the movement.Some of his colleagues were more interested in sharing their work with a wider market but Rietveld was very much in an inner circle by the 1920s and was experimenting within that group.My favorite painter is Piet Mondrian. Do you have any similar paintings to recommend?
This is not a painting, but: there are a chair and wheelbarrow designed by De Stijl artist Gerrit Rietveld on the 4th floor. Mondrian was also a member of the De Stijl group and you can really see the similarity in Rietveld's furniture.Cool...I'll check that out. Thanks!
Have information?
Have information about an artwork? Contact us at