A Group of Girls in the Park

A group of girls in the park, Spain, circa 1880.

In a Barcelona neoclassical park setting, a young woman and six girls play jump rope. Spain in the 1880s enjoyed economic prosperity after the Restoration of the Spanish Crown (1875), and these girls appear to reflect that prosperity. From the left, the first girl wears a short knee length pleated gray dress with a dropped waistline and a black collar and cuffs.

Narrow white ruffles edge the neck and cuffs. The dress has long narrow sleeves with short, full, pleated over sleeves, and a black bow sits at the front of each shoulder. She wears red stockings and black heeled button boots. She wears yellow gloves, pendant earrings, and a tall black hat with twisted lengths of red ribbon wrapped around, with a large bow at the front. Next to her feet is a ball. Standing next to her is an older girl who wears a dress of black dots on a pink background.

Her stockings, cuffs, and front bodice are deep sapphire blue. A dotted bodice is worn jacket-style over the sapphire blue. The center edges of the bodice are trimmed with three bands of zigzag trim, and a broader zigzag trims each cuff above a dark blue band. The hem of the bodice is also trimmed with the wider zigzag. The skirt is gathered at the waist and slightly pulled toward the back in a fashionable silhouette.

The wider zigzag also edges the knee length hem. She wears black heeled shoes, earrings, and a pink lined gray hat trimmed with blue ribbon and large bows, and a pink feather. The next girl holds one end of the jump rope, and turns away from the viewer wearing a tan and brown outfit. With her back facing the viewer, she displays a cape-like jacket with three vertical bands of brown velvet ribbon that gather at the waistline into pleats.

The visual line of the ribbons continue down the back of the skirt in vertical box pleats, which provide fashionable fullness at the back. Her long sleeves are buttoned at the cuffs. She wears yellow gloves, brown stockings and heeled black button boots. She wears earrings and a tall straw hat decorated with brown ribbon wrapping the crown, a large orange flower, and greenery.

Her hair falls in loose waves below her shoulders. Next to her in blue is a younger girl who jumps the rope. Her short dress has vertical narrow stripes and pleats. One layer is pale blue and two other tiers of striped ruffles create the skirt. The dress has a pleated front and a dropped waist with a buckled belt. The jacket is also of stripes, open fronted and trimmed with a wide gathered cream colored lace collar and cuffs. Down the center front edges are rows of small floral trim. She wears blue stockings, yellow shoes with blue bows, and a blue ribbon in her hair.

Her blond hair is pulled back, then falls loosely below her shoulders, with a narrow fringe of curled bangs at the front.. Turning the other end of the jump rope is a girl wearing dark brown and blue. The blue under skirt and bodice has thin, vertical pleats. The hem of her knee length brown dress has a black eyelet lace pattern.

The bodice has a deep v neck, a dropped waist, long narrow sleeves, and matching patterned cuffs and lapels. Just below the waist is a horizontally drape gathered at the hip with blue bows, and poufed at the back to create the fashionable silhouette like that of a grown woman. She wears yellow gloves, brown stockings, black heeled shoes with gold buckles, and a tall crowned brown hat, lined with blue and trimmed with a blue feather and blue ribbons.

Watching the game is a small girl dressed in red. She holds a rolling hoop and stick behind her back. Her dress has a bloused bodice with a dropped waist, and a double-layered skirt with wide box pleats. The upper pleat have a circular pattern on each pleat in gray and red. Her dress has a wide white lace collar and cuffs.

She wears red stockings, black heeled shoes with red bows, and a red bow in her blond hair. The young woman who attends the girls wears an ankle length green and pink dress. All the girls wear their hair loose on their shoulders, but she has her hair dressed up and back, showing that she is older than the others. Her snugly fitted bodice has a high, stiff collar, and a silver bar pin fastens a pink cravat at the collar. The open bodice with buttons reveals a deep pink blouse, and a flounce of pink material at the waistline.

The gathered green over skirt is gathered and draped up at the back.The underskirt is in two layers and each hem is banded with a deep pattern of pink acanthus leaf scrolling. She wears brown stockings, black heeled shoes, yellow gloves, and a small brimmed straw bonnet trimmed and edged with black ribbon and pink and black flowers.

She wears her hat tilted forward. She holds an open parasol. The group plays in a city park which contains a green slatted bench, a marble balustrade, and a neoclassical building in the background.

Credit: The Claremont Colleges