Girl Sweeping

None

• Paxton used diffuse light to subtly soften the forms in this scene. This effect appealed to Americans in the early twentieth century, who had become accustomed to the less rigid contours and textures of Impressionism. At the heart of his style, however, is a firm sense of composition and drawing, traits he learned through his study with the French academic painter Jean-Léon Gérôme.
• Paxton’s signature subject matter, typical of the Boston School, was a leisure-class woman isolated in a well-appointed interior with elegant furniture and porcelains. In this painting, however, he chooses a behind-the-scenes view of a housekeeper engaged in maintaining such an interior. Despite the change in subject, Paxton does not abandon the mood of quiet introspection that characterizes his work.

Curatorial Summary

William Paxton grew up in Newton, Massachusetts, and studied in Boston at the Cowles School and in Paris at the École des Beaux-Arts. His primary influence, especially for his figure studies, was the 17th-century Dutch master Johannes Vermeer. In addition to his easel painting, Paxton was a muralist, lithographer, and etcher with studios in Boston, East Gloucester, and Provincetown. He was elected full member of the prestigious National Academy of Design in 1928. Paxton was equally famous for his portraiture and figure studies of upper-class women at leisure.

Girl Sweeping is characteristic of Paxton’s women in elegant settings and is a smaller version of a painting of the same title executed in 1912. The paintings are similar except for a rearrangement of furniture and the addition of the cap in the smaller version, which more readily defines the figure as a servant. It is not unusual for Paxton to depict servants, since they were so much a part of upper-class life.

Reference

Lee, Ellen Wardwell, R.H. Ives Gammel, and Martin F. Krause, Jr. William McGregor Paxton, 1869-1941: Member of the National Academy. Indianapolis: Indianapolis Museum of Art, 1979.

(Hirschl and Adler Galleries New York);
(Sloan and Roman Gallery, New York);
purchased by Mrs. Harry Mallinson in 1971;
donated to the Indianapolis, in 2004 (2004.87).