Born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, Charles Dana Gibson attended the Art Students League in New York, studying with Thomas Eakins and Kenyon Cox. Hugely successful at the turn of the century, he left New York from 1905 to 1907 to study painting in France, Spain, and Italy.Gibson's name is still remembered for its association with the icon he created, the "Gibson Girl." This idealised, refined upper-middle-class woman became so popular that she was featured in stage plays, and her image was printed on a variety of domestic objects. The highest-paid illustrator of his time, in 1904 Gibson accepted a contract from Collier's Weekly, which paid him $100,000 for one hundred illustrations over four years. Gibson's illustrations gently satirised public life and mores. During World War I, as president of the Society of Illustrators, Gibson formed and became head of the Division of Pictorial Publicity under the Federal Committee of Public Information. Through this program, prominent illustrators were recruited to design posters, billboards, and other publicity for the war effort. His involvement with publicity during the war led Gibson to become owner and editor of Life, a New York-based magazine filled with short articles and illustrations. In the early 1930s Gibson retired in order to devote more time to painting.
For more information about Charles Dana Gibson see part 1, and for earlier works see parts 1 - 5 also.
This is part 6 of a 12-part series on the works of Charles Dana Gibson:
1902 The Social Ladder:Note: A few of these images appeared in earlier contexts.
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| His Revenge. |
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| Studies in Expression. |
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| The Troubles of the Rich. |
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| The Heiress. |
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| Why Not. |
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| Advice to a Hostess. |
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| Modern Celebrities. |
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| Studies in Expression. |
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| Parasites. |
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| Of course there are Mermaids. |
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| Plenty of Good Fish in the Sea. |
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| His Christmas Gift. |
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| A Suggestion. |
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| Studies in Expression. |
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| A Crooked Tale. |
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| The Ambitious Mother and the Obliging Clergyman. |
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| Frozen. |
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| Studies in Expression. |
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| The Merry-Go Round. |
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| Another Moth. |
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| The Enthusiast Who Insists Upon Showing You His Estate. |
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| Study in Expression. |
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| One of the Disadvantages of being in Love with an Athletic Girl. |
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| Pillsbury does not care for Society, but his Wife will not go without Him. |
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| Alas! The Voice of his Fiancée. |
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| Studies in Expression. |
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| The Half Orphan. |
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| Unlucky at Cards. Lucky in Love. |
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| When a Man's in Love. |
