Cockney Kid with Hoop

Dobell seems chiefly to have been impressed by technique when he studied works in Europe and London, especially the application of oil paint. These insights flowed into a sequence of paintings over 1936–1938. He applied paint in a deliberated-over, highly considered manner. The vitality of youth is conveyed by paintwork and modelling in Cockney girl with hoop. Here the paint is applied with richness yet smooth restraint, especially in a mop of strawlike hair.

Dobell had refined this composition from several sketches of common children he observed while they played on a London street. Russell Drysdale so admired the finished painting that, when exhibited, he purchased it for his own small collection.