Sloan’s decision to work in Gloucester, a popular spot among artists, arose from his desire for new and different material, and the paintings he executed there represent a departure from the subject matter and style of his earlier and better-known paintings in several respects. The impact of postimpressionist and School of Paris paintings exhibited in the Armory Show of 1913 challenged him to modify his approach to painting. Prior to this time he had waited to encounter an interesting subject and then painted it from memory in his studio; now he recognized the validity of landscapes and of more randomly chosen motifs, as well as the need to paint on a regular basis.
During his five summers in Gloucester Sloan painted approximately three hundred pictures, most of them done on his portable easel. These outdoor scenes were painted quickly and directly, with very few sketches. Seeing the limitations of his formerly low-key palette, Sloan now employed a much greater variety of color, using for each painting a different, set palette, limited according to the scheme of color advocated by the color theorist and paint supplier Hardesty Maratta. In Town Steps and other works Sloan also explored the theories of architectonic structure advocated by Maratta and others, developing a firm geometry and long diagonals, while also tilting up his backgrounds to better balance surface design with perspective recession. In this painting Sloan displays a new vigor of paint application and interest in painting textures, inspired by his having seen paintings by Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890).
According to Sloan the figures in Town Steps were anonymous pedestrians, typical citizens of Gloucester. As is characteristic of his paintings of the area, it is a landscape with figures rather than a genre subject, as were his New York paintings. The original title, The Town Steps, is misleading because of the definite article. There were several sets of stairs between the streets of Gloucester, none singled out as "the" town steps.
Years later, after looking at a reproduction of the painting, Sloan commented, "Thoroughly satisfactory is my memory of this painting refreshed by the photograph. These wooden steps were a pedestrian thoroughfare connecting streets on two levels. The girls are healthy types of the native population. Rich in color and convincing in light. I’d like to see it again."
