Young Man at Croquet

Charles Dana Gibson — the artist who defined the era's image of patrician American leisure — sketches a young man in knickerbockers and a red waistcoat, mallet hanging loosely from one hand, the other fist planted on his hip. A croquet wicket and ball sit at lower left; the figure gazes downward with studied nonchalance. No printed caption survives with this plate. The drawing belongs to Gibson's recurring satirical survey of upper-middle-class sporting life, where the joke is less slapstick than atmospheric: the elaborate costume, the striped stockings, the theatrical pose all gently puncture the self-seriousness of a class that turned lawn games into social theater.