This is a small piece and one of a pair (see Girl on Diving Board), which tries to evoke the 1930 bathing belle images of the time.

In the 1930s swimming became emblematic of a set of values and lifestyle focussed on beauty and pleasure. Perhaps part of a reaction to the great depression.

Many of the Hollywood films in the early 1930s featured swimming and I think of Esther Wuilliams, rubber bathing caps, Jantzen bathing costumes, images on the front pages of the US Saturday Evening Post.

Scroll up or down for additional pages