A daughter of the south 1909

Charles Dana Gibson made this drawing, A Daughter of the South, with pen and ink on paper. It may seem like a straightforward portrait, but consider the medium: ink, a fluid substance, drawn across paper, a mass-produced surface. Gibson, working at the turn of the 20th century, was one of America’s great illustrators. His drawings were reproduced in magazines and newspapers. This meant that his artistic labor was directly linked to industrial printing processes, and to the burgeoning media culture of the time. The apparent simplicity of the drawing – its elegant, sweeping lines – belies the complex networks of production that made it possible. The paper and ink were manufactured. The image itself was prepared for mechanical reproduction. And the subject, with her fashionable choker and hairstyle, was also a product of her time. So while this portrait might seem to be about one woman, it really speaks to the broader social and economic forces at play in American society. Ultimately, even a simple drawing can reveal a great deal about the world around it.