Since the 1980's Eric Fischl (b. 1948) has been admired internationally as one of the most daring and distinct figurative artists. Over the course of his career he has worked in a host of mediums; sculpture, mosaic, paint and printmaking.

Raised in the suburbs of Long Island, Fischl has critiqued his middle-class upbringing for it's appearance-focused lifestyle. Fischl gained recognition and attention in the early 1980's for depicting daily activities of the suburban middle-class imbued with adolescent fantasies, sexual innuendos and the threat of violence.

This work, a study for a painting of the same name - that generated controversy in the late 80's, is quite benign and gentle compared with its successor (pictured below) also created in 1979.

The original preparatory drawing was straightforward and void of the prickly sexuality Fischl became notorious for. Here, the two boys are rendered relatively conventionally, with the exception of the strange vantage point / scale...a technique that Fischl would emphasize in the following decade.