Nicole Harripersad

COMD 2313

Prof Sara Wooley

October 17^th, 2017

Society of Illustrators

Last week on October 10^th, 2017 I went on a class field trip to the Society of Illustrators. When it comes to certain museums I don’t partake in a lot of interest in the pieces. But, this museum was a lot different than the Museum of natural history. I enjoyed this trip very much because of the artwork was shown, the different styles that were presented, and what tools, pens, paints, and other mixed media used.  One certain piece that I really enjoyed personally was a harry potter illustration because it looks like the poster I would buy from a store.

The main piece I enjoyed from the Society of Illustrators was a drawing that was Illustrated by Charles Dana Gibson titled “At the Recital”, which was apart of the “Fashion and Satire” gallery. The illustration was a story about a couple, blessed with gorgeous beauty and handsomeness, who has generated mixed emotions to the people in a recital/ party by showing their love and affections towards the public. Showing this towards of attention in public has created a distraction for the guests at the recital. I guess in my point of view, relationships were supposed to keep more in private between lovers than showing it outside in public where it makes people feel distracted, jealous, or in disgust.

Now I would like to take my time and discuss more on the artist who created this lovely piece. Charles Dana Gibson. Gibson was born into a wealthy family from Roxbury, New England, then a suburb of Boston. He was very interested in art as a boy while watching his father cut silhouettes for art. This then has sparked Charles to start cutting out silhouettes himself at the age of 8 years old, by the time Gibson was twelve, he was selling his silhouettes at various art exhibitions. When he was 14 years old, and with the help through family connections, Charles was chosen to be an apprentice to a sculptor known as Augustus Saint-Gaudens. After a year in Saint-Gaudens studio, he decided that sculpting was not his main interest and he went to use pen and ink. His parents, recognizing his artistic talent, enrolled Charles in the Art Students League. In 1885, due to an unplanned family financial hardship, he left the school at 18 years old to start his own career. Gibson’s best piece during his years was when he started drawing ‘The Gibson Girl’ and later featured her in his first full independent portfolio in 1894. She became known as an ideal image of the youthful American femininity: athletic, smart, stylish, and desirable, and she sold magazines. In fact, whole fashion lines were started when Gibson placed a ribbon on her forehead or a certain style dress on her tall fit figure. And then around 1917, after Gibson and other various artists formed the Society of Illustrators.

Charles, later on, retired at the age of 65, and he continued with art and decided to start oil painting and attempt into portraits. The American Academy of Arts has exhibited his paintings. The people of the world had long assumed that pen and ink were just only his main tools, but later on, the public has started to forget him, his technique, and The Gibson Girl that sold millions. In 1944 in the fall, Charles Dana Gibson suffered a heart attack. Then President Franklin D. Roosevelt requested Gibson to be flown on a Navy seaplane to New York to get immediate, where he died a few weeks later.

I really appreciated Charles Dana Gibson’s work because he knew the classic Pen and Ink would always be the way to sell his work and to be shown all around the world. His works were classical and inspirational, and it makes me want to continue with using pen and ink myself.