Gibson Girl Madness

As you can tell from my blog design, I’m kind of nuts for Charles Dana Gibson. I have a huge old coffee table book of his work (sadly, I have no coffee table) … and … there’s just something about his stuff that really speaks to me. I love “the ladies” – and that is an example of yet another post I feel I need to write someday. What those ladies represent to me. Why I love them so much. (Besides the fact that they are all my doppelgangers, I mean). Until I found the coffee-table Gibson-book at a second-hand bookstore – I only knew Gibson because of his famous “Gibson girls” – which decorate my blog. I’ve been into the Gibson Girls since I was a teenager and used to collect postcards of them. But the coffee-table book is full of all kinds of his drawings. He was an illustrator after all. He drew for magazines. He had wide appeal – to men and to women. He was topical, and humorous – sort of like Norman Rockwell was. And yet, like Rockwell, he also took on a lot of issues that were socially relevant at the time. Women’s suffrage, child labor, poverty, etc. I was fascinated to see how diverse he was – . There is always something rather symbolic and idealized about his stuff. Not realistic – although much of his subject matter is quite realistic: sports, romance, leisure time … He always adds another element which makes it into some kind of social or cultural commentary (perfect example below). I can recognize a Charles Dana Gibson drawing instantly.

Anyway, thought I’d post one of my favorites. It’s called “The Weaker Sex”. God, I just love those ladies. They’re so formidable. So lovely, and yet so … intimidating!! Love their haughtiness, love their eyebrows, love their mounds of hair, their creamy bare arms.

You do not want to mess with a Gibson Girl.