Play, Sport and Leisure

People have always played, competed and sought relaxation, and art has followed them out onto sports grounds, frozen lakes, beaches and streets. We follow play from the athletes of antiquity and Bruegel’s children at their games, through Dutch skaters, Rococo swings and the Impressionists’ Sunday outings, to Degas’s jockeys, Eakins’s oarsmen, Bellows’s boxers and Nordic bathing scenes.

• Athletes and Bull-Leapers – Antiquity
• Chessmen, Frogs and Bruegel’s Children at Play
• On the Ice – Dutch Winters and Children’s Festivities
• Swings and Soap Bubbles – the 18th Century
• Bathing, Sailing and Sundays on the Seine – the Impressionists and Seurat
• Horses and Oarsmen – Degas and Eakins
• Boxers, Footballers and the Pace of Modern Life
• Nordic Bathing and Games