Is Your Wife Losing 1919

Charles Dana Gibson created this drawing, titled "Is Your Wife Losing," with ink, conjuring up a social scene of tuxedoed men and women gathered around a card table. I imagine Gibson’s pen dancing across the page, those confident lines capturing not just form, but also the underlying tension, the unspoken drama. Look at how those quick strokes define the characters' postures, their sly glances. You can almost hear the clinking of glasses and the rustle of cards. There is a loose quality to the drawing style, which I can relate to! The man on the left is so buttoned up, yet still manages to look uneasy. I wonder if Gibson felt a similar tension between control and chaos when he was making the piece. It is that tension which gives the work its spark. Ultimately, it's about how artists riff off each other, across generations, translating feelings and ideas into lines and shapes. It is exciting, right?