While living in Harbin, Manchuria in Northeastern China, Slobodkina studied with the Impressionist painter Pavel Goost. She painted Park Bench under his tutelage. Slobodkina took lessons with Goost in order to pass the art entrance examinations at the Ilnd Realnoye Oochilische, a junior school high school that emphasized math and art (Tufts University Art Gallery, The Life and Art of Esphyr Slobodkina, 1992, p.8). “Park Bench” represents one of Slobodkina’s early attempts at art. Reproduced in Notes for an Autobiographer,Volume I, plate XIV. She calls it “Garden Walk”