Charles Dana Gibson

Charles Dana Gibson
Born	September 14, 1867(1867-09-14) Roxbury, Massachusetts
Died	December 23, 1944(1944-12-23) (aged 77) New York City
Nationality	American
Field	Illustration
Training	Art Students League of New York
Works	Gibson Girl series

Charles Dana Gibson (September 14, 1867 – December 23, 1944) was an American graphic artist, best known for his creation of the Gibson Girl, an iconic representation of the beautiful and independent American woman at the turn of the 20th century.

Gibson was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts to Charles DeWolf Gibson and Josephine Elizabeth Lovett.^[1] He was the great-grandson of U.S. Senator James DeWolf and the great-great-grandson of U.S. Senator William Bradford. A talented youth, he was enrolled by his parents in New York's Art Students League, where he studied for two years.

Magazines

Peddling his pen-and-ink sketches, he sold his first work in 1886 to John Ames Mitchell's Life. His works appeared weekly in the magazine for over 30 years. He quickly built a wider reputation, his works appearing in all the major New York publications, Harper's Weekly, Scribners and Collier's. 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

In 1895, he married Irene Langhorne, born in Danville, Virginia, a sister of Nancy Astor, the first woman to serve in as a Member of Parliament in the British House of Commons.^[2] The elegant Langhorne sisters, born to a once-wealthy Virginia family devastated by the Civil War, served as the inspiration for the famous Gibson Girls.^[3][4]

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.

Legacy

Almost unrestricted merchandising saw his distinctive sketches appear in many forms. The Gibson is named after him, as he favored ordering gin martinis with a pickled onion garnish in place of the traditional olive or lemon zest.

Gibson owned an island off of Islesboro, Maine which came to be known as 700 Acre Island, where he and his wife spent an increasing amount of time through the years.^[5] He retired in 1936, the same year Scribner's published his biography, Portrait of an Era as Drawn by C.D. Gibson: A Biography by Fairfax Downey.

On his death in 1944, Charles Dana Gibson was interred at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Work

• 

  Gibson Girl, circa 1900

• 

  Frontispiece to The Prisoner of Zenda, 1898

• 

  Illustration from Rupert of Hentzau, 1898

• 

  At the Beach, 1901

• 

  Fancy Dress, 1901

• 

  Love in a Garden, 1901

• 

  The Crush, 1901

• 

  Art Lesson, 1901

• 

  Everything in the World that Money Can Buy, 1901

• 

  Stepped On, 1901

• 

  Fanned Out, 1914

• 

  Studies in Expression: When Women Are Jurors 1902

Books

•   (1905). Sketches in Egypt. New York: Doubleday & McClure Co.. http://books.google.com/?id=xhFOAAAAMAAJ. Retrieved 2009-07-27. 
• Gibson, Charles Dana. The Gibson Girl and Her America. Dover, 2010.

See also

• Longfield (Charles Dana Gibson House)

References

1. ^ Rossiter Johnson, John Howard Brown (1904). The twentieth century biographical dictionary of notable Americans. The Biographical Society. http://books.google.com/books?id=Q1IDAAAAYAAJ&pg=PT303&lpg=PT303&dq=DeWolf+Gibson. 
2. ^ Langhorne House, 117 Broad Street, Danville, Va., virginia.org
3. ^ Charles Dana Gibson and his wife at their Islesboro, Maine, home, mainememory.net
4. ^ Mrs. Gibson, the original Gibson girl, Maine Memory Network, Maine's Online Museum, mainememory.net
5. ^ Charles Dana Gibson at his Islesboro home, vintagemaineimages.com

• Bulloch, J. M (1896). "Charles Dana Gibson". The Studio: an Illustrated Magazine of Fine and Applied Art VIII: 75–81. http://books.google.com/?id=o_cEAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA75. Retrieved 2009-07-27. 
• Davis, Charles Belmont (January 1899). "Mr. Charles Dana Gibson and his Art". The Critic XXXIV (859): 48–55. http://books.google.com/?id=uprPAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA48. Retrieved 2009-07-27. 
• Gelman, Woody (ed.) (1969). The Best of Charles Dana Gibson. New York: Bounty Books. 
• Marden, Orison Swett (1905). Little Visits With Great Americans, Chapter XXXIII "Charles Dana Gibson, Originator of the "Gibson Girl". New York: The Success Company. p. 124. http://books.google.com/?id=xF0oAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA342. Retrieved 2009-07-27. 
• The Gibson Girl and Her America. The Best Drawings of Charles Dana Gibson selected by Edmund Vincent Gillon, Jr. Dover Publications, Inc., New York, 1969.

 Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). "Gibson, Charles Dana". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

Persondata
Name	Gibson, Charles Dana
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1867-09-14
Place of birth	Roxbury, Massachusetts
Date of death	1944-12-23
Place of death	New York City