Grace Hoops

The game of graces originated in 19th-century France. Designed for young girls from middle- and upper-class families, the game was meant to entertain children while encouraging gracefulness, in accordance with period ideas of feminine civility.

According to a 19th-century description of the game, “the sticks are held straight, about four inches apart, when trying to catch the hoop; and when the hoop is thrown, they are crossed like a pair of scissors.”[8]

In Homer's painting, the game is played by two girls gracefully throwing a hoop to each other with sticks. The figure in black holds blue and white striped sticks while the one in white holds red and white sticks. Together, the women are tossing a red and white striped hoop between each other.

The scene takes place in a garden enclosed by a wooden fence, offering a glimpse of the landscape behind it. The dresses and the wide range of flowers indicate a summer day. Ground-ivy and common daisies occupy the foreground, while flowering bushes and pinkish hollyhocks in the background create a bucolic atmosphere. The blue sky is covered by bright, white clouds.

The young ladies are wearing long straight dresses. The dresses have balloon-shaped sleeves and an unnaturally high waistline, as favored by the 1870s fashion.[9] The lack of hats or hair accessories that were typical in social settings suggests an intimate relation between the women.  

Staring at the flying hoop, they both look very focused. The young ladies stand in a graceful pose as their chins are up, their arms slightly bent at the elbow and raised in the air accentuating their thin silhouette.

Homer chose to depict a key instant where the hoop is in motion in mid air, and time seems to freeze.[10]

Winslow Homer's interest in childhood was a preoccupation shard by other artists and writers after the Civil War.[11] In 1869, Eugene Benson, writer for the Appletons' Journal and close friend of the painter, referred to childhood in literature as "a special and individual presence, not an accidental and accessory one."[12] Grace Hoops has been described as a meditation on the “transition between childhood and adulthood.”[13] According to the art historian Helen A. Copper, the painting might also be a way for Homer to reflect on his current position as an adult, at the end of his own youth.[14]

Grace Hoops was discussed by several critics. One author praised it as a "spirited picture."[17] Another writer ridiculed it in the New York Daily Tribune: "Mr. Winslow Homer had a picture entirely unworthy of his reputation. It was called 'Grace Hoops,' but why, who can tell. These ladies had no hoops, and certainly they had no grace."[18]

The painting is currently in the collection of the McMullen Museum of Art, having been donated as part of the Carolyn A. and Peter S. Lynch collection.[19] It was first owned by a certain Henry T. Chapman before being sold at Leavitt’s auction house to Lawson Valentine in May 1875.[20]

Grace Hoops has also been exhibited on several occasions since its creation in the 19th century. It has been displayed at Young's Art Galleries in Chicago, Illinois; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 1944; the San Francisco Legion of Honor in 1964; and the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1973.[21]