CHARLES

See also:

• DANA, CHARLES ANDERSON (1819–'897)
• DANA, FRANCIS (1743-1811)
• DANA, JAMES DWIGHT (1813-1895)

DANA

See also:

• CHARLES DANA GIBSON (1867- )
• GIBSON, EDMUND (1669-1748)
• GIBSON, JOHN (1790-1866)
• GIBSON, THOMAS MILNER (1806-1884)
• GIBSON, WILLIAM HAMILTON (1850-1896)

GIBSON (1867- )  , American artist and illustrator, was born at Roxbury, Massachusetts, on the 14th of September 1867 . After a year's study at the schools of the Art Students' League, he began with some modest little drawings for the humorous weekly Life . These he followed up with more serious work, and soon made a place for himself as the delineator of the American girl, at various occupations, particularly those out of doors . These obtained an enormous vogue, being after-wards published in book form, running through many editions . The " Gibson Girl . " stood for a type of healthy, vigorous, beautiful and refined young womanhood . Some book illustrations followed, notably for The Prisoner of Zenda . He was imitated by many of the younger draughtsmen, copied by amateurs, and his popularity was shown in his engagement by Collier's Weekly to furnish weekly for a year a double page, receiving for the fifty-two drawings the sum of $5o,000, said to have been the largest amount ever paid to an illustrator for such a commission . These drawings covered various local themes and were highly successful, being drawn with pen and ink with masterly facility and great directness and economy of line . So popular was one series, " The Adventures of Mr Pipp," that a successful play was modelled on it . In 1906, although besieged with commissions, Gibson withdrew from illustrative work, determining to devote himself to portraiture in oil, in which direction he had already made some successful experiments; but in a few years he again returned to illustration .