Charles Allan Gilbert (September 3, 1873 – April 20, 1929), better known as C. Allan Gilbert, was a prominent

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complic ...

. He is especially remembered for a widely published drawing (a

memento mori ''Memento mori'' (Latin for 'remember that you ave todie'

) titled ''All Is Vanity''. The drawing employs a double image (or

visual pun A visual pun is a pun involving an image or images (in addition to or instead of language), often based on a rebus. Visual puns in which the image is at odds with the inscription are common in cartoons such as ''Lost Consonants'' or ''The Far ...

) in which the scene of a woman admiring herself in a

mirror A mirror or looking glass is an object that reflects an image. Light that bounces off a mirror will show an image of whatever is in front of it, when focused through the lens of the eye or a camera. Mirrors reverse the direction of the im ...

, when viewed from a distance, appears to be a

human skull The skull is a bone protective cavity for the brain. The skull is composed of four types of bone i.e., cranial bones, facial bones, ear ossicles and hyoid bone. However two parts are more prominent: the cranium and the mandible. In humans, th ...

. The title is also a pun, as this type of dressing-table is also known as a

vanity Vanity is the excessive belief in one's own abilities or attractiveness to others. Prior to the 14th century it did not have such narcissistic undertones, and merely meant ''futility''. The related term vainglory is now often seen as an archaic ...

. The phrase "All is vanity" comes from Ecclesiastes 1:2 ("Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.") It refers to the vanity and pride of humans. In art, vanity has long been represented as a woman preoccupied with her beauty. And art that contains a human skull as a focal point is called a memento mori (

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

for "remember death"), a work that reminds people of their mortality. It is less widely known that Gilbert was an early contributor to

animation Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...

, and a

camouflage Camouflage is the use of any combination of materials, coloration, or illumination for concealment, either by making animals or objects hard to see, or by disguising them as something else. Examples include the leopard's spotted coat, the b ...

artist (or camoufleur) for the

U.S. Shipping Board The United States Shipping Board (USSB) was established as an emergency agency by the 1916 Shipping Act (39 Stat. 729), on September 7, 1916. The United States Shipping Board's task was to increase the number of US ships supporting the World War ...

during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

Background

Born in

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since t ...

, Gilbert was the youngest of the three sons of Charles Edwin Gilbert and Virginia Ewing Crane. As a child, he was an invalid (the circumstances of which are unclear), with the result that he often made drawings for self-amusement (Leonard 1913). At age sixteen, he began to study art with Charles Noel Flagg, the official

portrait painter Portrait Painting is a genre in painting, where the intent is to represent a specific human subject. The term 'portrait painting' can also describe the actual painted portrait. Portraitists may create their work by commission, for public and pr ...

for the State of

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the ...

, who had also founded the Connecticut League of Art Students. In 1892, he enrolled at the

Art Students League of New York The Art Students League of New York is an art school at 215 West 57th Street in Manhattan, New York City, New York. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists. Although artists may st ...

, where he remained for two years. In 1894, he moved to France for a year, where he studied with Jean-Paul Laurens and

Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant (also known as Benjamin-Constant), born Jean-Joseph Constant (10 June 1845 – 26 May 1902), was a French painter and etcher best known for his Oriental subjects and portraits. Biography Benjamin-Constant was bor ...

at the Academie Julien in Paris (''New York Times'' 1913).

Illustration career

Woman-with-rose C-Allan-Gilbert 1920 1200x530 sbh

Returning from Paris, Gilbert settled in New York, where he embarked on an active career as an illustrator of books, magazines, posters and calendars. His illustrations were frequently published in ''

Scribner's Charles Scribner's Sons, or simply Scribner's or Scribner, is an American publisher based in New York City, known for publishing American authors including Henry James, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Kurt Vonnegut, Marjorie Kinnan Ra ...

'', '' Harper's'', ''

Atlantic Monthly ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

'' and other leading magazines. It was earlier, while he was still a student at the Art Students' League, that he completed ''All Is Vanity'', the drawing that became popular when it was initially published in ''

Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energy ...

'' magazine in 1902. In the course of his artistic career, Gilbert illustrated a large number of books, among them

Ellen Glasgow Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow (April 22, 1873 – November 21, 1945) was an American novelist who won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1942 for her novel ''In This Our Life''. She published 20 novels, as well as short stories, to critical a ...

's ''Life and Gabriella'' (1916), H.G. Wells' ''The Soul of a Bishop'' (1917),

Gouverneur Morris Gouverneur Morris ( ; January 31, 1752 – November 6, 1816) was an American statesman, a Founding Father of the United States, and a signatory to the Articles of Confederation and the United States Constitution. He wrote the Preamble to th ...

' ''His Daughter'' (1919),

Edith Wharton Edith Wharton (; born Edith Newbold Jones; January 24, 1862 – August 11, 1937) was an American novelist, short story writer, and interior designer. Wharton drew upon her insider's knowledge of the upper-class New York "aristocracy" to portray ...

's ''The Age of Innocence'' (1920), and

Booth Tarkington Newton Booth Tarkington (July 29, 1869 – May 19, 1946) was an American novelist and dramatist best known for his novels '' The Magnificent Ambersons'' (1918) and '' Alice Adams'' (1921). He is one of only four novelists to win the Pulit ...

's ''Gentle Julia'' (1922). He also published collections of his own drawings, including ''Overheard in the Whittington Family'', ''Women of Fiction'', ''All is Vanity'', ''The Honeymoon'', ''A Message from Mars'', and ''In Beauty's Realm''.

Work as an animator

As an early contributor to animated films (Grant, p. 49), Gilbert worked for John R. Bray in 1915–16 on the production of a series of moving shadow plays called '' Silhouette Fantasies''. These

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...

-styled films, which were made by combining filmed

silhouettes A silhouette ( , ) is the image of a person, animal, object or scene represented as a solid shape of a single colour, usually black, with its edges matching the outline of the subject. The interior of a silhouette is featureless, and the silhou ...

with pen-and-ink components, were serious interpretations of Greek myths (Crafton 1993, p. 865; Bachman 2002, pp. 261–262).

Camouflage service

During World War I, Gilbert served as a camouflage artist for the U.S. Shipping Board (the

Emergency Fleet Corporation The Emergency Fleet Corporation (EFC) was established by the United States Shipping Board, sometimes referred to as the War Shipping Board, on 16 April 1917 pursuant to the Shipping Act (39 Stat. 729) to acquire, maintain, and operate merchant shi ...

), as did other well-known artists and illustrators, including

McClelland Barclay McClelland Barclay (1891 – 18 July 1943) was an American illustrator. By the age of 21, Barclay's work had been published in ''The Saturday Evening Post'', ''Ladies' Home Journal'', and ''Cosmopolitan''. He was commissioned as a lieutenant in ...

, William MacKay, and

Henry Reuterdahl Henry Reuterdahl (August 12, 1870 – December 21, 1925) was a Swedish-American painter highly acclaimed for his nautical artwork. He had a long relationship with the United States Navy. In addition to serving as a Lieutenant Commander in the ...

(Behrens 2009). As did they, he also illustrated posters for American wartime programs such as

Liberty Bonds A liberty bond (or liberty loan) was a war bond that was sold in the United States to support the Allied cause in World War I. Subscribing to the bonds became a symbol of patriotic duty in the United States and introduced the idea of finan ...

(or Liberty Loans).

Later years

Throughout his life (and still today), Gilbert was so strongly identified with his drawing ''All Is Vanity'' that he is sometimes mistakenly credited with two other popular double image artworks, ''Gossip: And the Devil Was There'', and ''Social Donkey'', both of which were apparently made by another illustrator of the same time period, George A. Wotherspoon. Gilbert continued to live in New York during the remainder of his life, but he often spent his summers on Monhegan Island in

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and nor ...

. He died in New York of pneumonia at age 55.

References

Sources

* Ecclesiastes 1 from The Holy Bible. * Bachman, Gregg, and Thomas J. Slater, eds., ''American Silent Film: Discovering Marginalized Voices''. Carbondale: South Illinois University, 2002, pp. 261–262. * "Charles Allan Gilbert" in John W. Leonard, ed., ''Who’s Who in America''. Vol 7, 1913, p. 800. * Crafton, Donald, ''Before Mickey: The Animated Film 1898-1928''. University of Chicago Press, 1993. * “'Girl of To-Day' Jury Famous For American Types" in ''New York Times'', December 7, 1913, p. SM5. * Grant, John, ''Masters of Animation''. New York: Watson Guptil, 2001. * “Charles Allen icGilbert” a
Sandlot Science
* “U.S. Shipping Board” in Roy R. Behrens, ''Camoupedia: A Compendium of Research on Art, Architecture and Camouflage''. Dysart, Iowa: Bobolink Books, 2009.

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gilbert, Charles Allan American illustrators Art Students League of New York alumni Camoufleurs 1873 births 1929 deaths Artists from Hartford, Connecticut Deaths from pneumonia in New York (state) Bray Productions people