From the exhibition
Picturesque America — In the Mountains
Gibson, Charles Dana, 1867-1944, artist · Charles Dana Gibson, c. 1900. Pen and ink on paper. Published in Life.

A landscape of rocky mountain terrain frames five or more Gibson Girls at leisure — two in the foreground, one seated in dark dress with arms crossed, one reclining in white with an elaborate flower-trimmed hat; a third waves her hat jubilantly at right. Smaller sketched figures recede into the background hills, giving the composition a panoramic, almost cinematic sweep. The caption, *Picturesque America — Anywhere in the Mountains*, is the joke: the scenery is merely backdrop for the women themselves, who are the real spectacle. Gibson flatters and gently mocks simultaneously — these confident, fashionably corseted figures have colonized the wilderness as thoroughly as any resort hotel, their elaborate dress utterly indifferent to terrain.
Gibson, Charles Dana, 1867-1944, artist Public domain