From his stay in France, he is thought to have developed an appreciation for Impressionist techniques such as loose brushwork and the use of outdoor lighting.

[5] In his thirties, the artist went through an experimental period painting a series of canvases mainly depicting the theme of childhood and women.

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.

Ground-ivy and common daisies occupy the foreground, while flowering bushes and pinkish hollyhocks in the background create a bucolic atmosphere.

[9] The lack of hats or hair accessories that were typical in social settings suggests an intimate relation between the women.

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.