Cleveland Museum of Art

Spring, Central Park

George Bellows

Date

1921

Medium

lithograph

Culture

America

Department

Prints

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Within the city’s many parks, people from different social classes could mingle and observe one another. Both the men and women in this print are dressed in fashionable attire, and yet it remains unclear if the groups are of the same social class. By 1921, clothing mimicking couture fashions could be purchased off the rack, and even working-class men could buy the “white collars” associated with businessmen. The two ladies appear unaffected by the men’s laughter and backward glances; unaccompanied, and apparently absorbed in conversation, they epitomized the increasing independence of young urban women. These fashionably dressed young women are sporting fur muffs over their hands, whose large size denotes them as luxury items.

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