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

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 complicate ...

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

memento mori (Latin for "remember (that you have) to die")

'' or ''

vanitas ''Vanitas'' is a genre of symbolizing the temporality, transience of life, the futility of pleasure, and the certainty of death, and thus the vanity of ambition and all worldly desires. The paintings involved still life imagery of transitory i ...

'') 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 Fa ...

) in which the scene of a woman admiring herself in a mirror of her vanity table, when viewed from a distance, appears to be a

human skull The skull, or cranium, is typically a bony enclosure around the brain of a vertebrate. In some fish, and amphibians, the skull is of cartilage. The skull is at the head end of the vertebrate. In the human, the skull comprises two prominen ...

. 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 compared 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 ...

. 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 spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

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 filmmaking technique whereby still images are manipulated to create moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Animati ...

,Crafton, Donald, ''Before Mickey: The Animated Film 1898-1928''. University of Chicago Press, 1993. 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 a corporation established as an emergency agency by the Merchant Marine Act of 1916 (Alexander Act), 1916 Shipping Act (39 Stat. 729), on September 7, 1916. The United States Shipping Board's task was to ...

during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

.“U.S. Shipping Board” in Roy R. Behrens, ''Camoupedia: A Compendium of Research on Art, Architecture and Camouflage''. Dysart, Iowa: Bobolink Books, 2009.

Early life

Born in

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The city, located in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County, had a population of 121,054 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ce ...

, 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 Hierarchy of genres, 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 commissio ...

for the State of

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

, 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 in the American Fine Arts Society in Manhattan, New York City. The Arts Students League is known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists. Although artists may study f ...

, 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 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 that has published several notable American authors, including Henry James, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Kurt Vonnegut, Marjo ...

'', ''

Harper's ''Harper's Magazine'' is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts. Launched in New York City in June 1850, it is the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the United States. ''Harper's Magazine'' has ...

'', ''

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

'' 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, also known as biota, refers to matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, Structure#Biological, organisation, met ...

'' 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 (novel), ''In This Our Life''. She published 20 novels, as well as shor ...

's ''Life and Gabriella'' (1916),

H.G. Wells Herbert George Wells (21 September 1866 – 13 August 1946) was an English writer, prolific in many genres. He wrote more than fifty novels and dozens of short stories. His non-fiction output included works of social commentary, politics, hist ...

' ''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 the ...

' ''His Daughter'' (1919),

Edith Wharton Edith Newbold Wharton (; ; January 24, 1862 – August 11, 1937) was an American writer and designer. Wharton drew upon her insider's knowledge of the upper-class New York "aristocracy" to portray, realistically, the lives and morals of the Gil ...

'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 (novel), Alice Adams'' (1921). He is one of only four novelists to w ...

'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 play Shadow play, also known as shadow puppetry, is an ancient form of storytelling and entertainment which uses flat articulated cut-out figures (shadow puppets) which are held between a source of light and a translucent screen or scrim (material), ...

s called '' Silhouette Fantasies''. These

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...

-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 silhouett ...

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), as did other well-known artists and illustrators, including McClelland Barclay, William MacKay, and Henry Reuterdahl (Behrens 2009). As did they, he also illustrated posters for American wartime programs such as Liberty Bonds (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 U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...

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

References

Sources

* 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. * “'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” at

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gilbert, Charles Allan 1873 births 1929 deaths 19th-century American illustrators 20th-century American artists 19th-century American male artists 20th-century American male artists American illustrators Animators from Connecticut Art Students League of New York alumni Camoufleurs Artists from Hartford, Connecticut Deaths from pneumonia in New York (state) Bray Productions people American pastel artists Shadow play United States government officials of World War I