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Cover by Charles Dana Gibson... "St. Valentine's Number"...
Cover by Charles Dana Gibson... "St. Valentine's Number"...
Item # 539662
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February 05, 1903
LIFE, New York, February 5, 1903
* Charles Dana Gibson illustration
Full front page illustration (see photos) using tones of black and a dull yellow features a woman (a Gibson girl?) in a gown juggling four small men in formal wear each shaped in the form of a letter to spell the word "LIFE", with a banner in the background inscribed "St. Valentine's No." Gibson's signature is at the bottom of the illustration.
Other prints with text throughout this 16 page issue. Measures 10 3/4 by 8 3/4 inches, in very good, displayable condition.
source: wikipedia: Charles Dana Gibson (September 14, 1867–December 23, 1944) was an American graphic artist, noted for his creation of the "Gibson Girl," an iconic representation of the beautiful and independent American woman at the turn of the 20th century.
He was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts. A talented youth, he was enrolled by his parents in the Art Students League, Manhattan. He studied there for two years before leaving to find work. Peddling his pen-and-ink sketches, he sold his first work in 1886 to John Ames Mitchell's Life magazine. His works appeared weekly in the magazine for over thirty years. He also quickly built a wider reputation, his works appearing in all the major New York publications and also Harper's Weekly, Scribners and Colliers Magazine. His illustrated books include the 1898 editions of Anthony Hope's The Prisoner of Zenda and its sequel Rupert of Hentzau. The development of the "Gibson Girl" from 1890 and her nationwide fame made Gibson respected and wealthy.
Their First Quarrel, 1914
Their First Quarrel, 1914
He married Irene Langhorne of Virginia in 1895; she was a sister of Nancy Astor, the British politician.
Almost unrestricted merchandising saw his distinctive sketches appear in many forms. He became the editor and eventual owner of Life after the death of Mitchell in 1918. The popularity of the Gibson Girl faded after World War I, and Gibson took to working with oils for his own pleasure. He retired in 1936.
The Gibson Martini is named after him, as he favored ordering gin martinis with a pickled onion garnish in place of the traditional olive or lemon zest.
On his passing in 1944, Charles Dana Gibson was interred with his wife in the same jar at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Category: The 20th Century
No Longer Available
