Gibson Girls

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My last picture post was of Isidre Nonell's artwork who painted mainly poor people on the bottom rings of society. Today we go to the opposite end of the spectrum with the work of Charles Dana Gibson (1867-1946), a magazine illustrator, who created the Gibson Girls. They are an icon of the affluent, beautiful and stylish modern women of the day.

A fair number of the illustration feature courting or marriage scenes. Naturally, as with a lot of work aimed at women, the men in them are a rather hapless lot being manipulated by the Gibson Girls who are, by and large, a rather smug looking group of young ladies.  

Charles Dana Gibson