William Paxton was born and raised in Newton, Massachusetts. He studied at the Cowles School in Boston and at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. The seventeenth-century Dutch master Johannes Vermeer was his primary influence, especially for his figure studies. In addition to easel paintings, Paxton produced murals, lithographs, and etchings in his Boston, East Gloucester, and Provincetown studios. He became a member of the National Academy of Design in 1928. Paxton was equally famous for his portraiture and figure studies of upper class women at leisure.

Girl Sweeping depicts a member of another stratum of society, the working class. This intimate painting, which is reminiscent of Jean-Siméon Chardin’s figure painting, is a smaller version of a work executed in 1912. Both compositions are very similar except for a rearrangement of furniture and the addition of the cap in the Indianapolis version, which more readily defines the figure as a servant. It is not unusual for Paxton to include servants tending to the luxurious spaces of the upper class.

Lee, Ellen Wardwell, R. H. Ives Gammel, Martin F. Krause, Jr. William McGregor Paxton 1869-1941. Indianapolis Museum of Art, 1979.