The reason dinner was late 1912

Editor: So this is Charles Dana Gibson’s 1912 ink drawing, "The reason dinner was late". The linework feels so immediate and kind of frenetic, capturing this charged moment. What do you make of the drawing? Curator: Looking at the materials, the choice of ink lends itself to mass reproduction, think newspapers and magazines. Gibson wasn't just making 'high art'; he was deeply engaged in a visual culture produced for a wide audience. This opens a dialogue about how we value labor; Gibson, as a celebrated illustrator, his artistic labor commanded high prices and attention, unlike perhaps the labor of the women who would have been serving that delayed dinner. Editor: That’s fascinating! It seems to turn a mirror back on the very society it depicts. Is that also what’s at stake with the caricature itself? Curator: Absolutely. Consider the sitter: presumably someone with the economic and social standing to commission such a portrait. Yet, he's being satirized, and that satire will be consumed by potentially thousands in printed form. Is this a challenge to class structures, or a reinforcement through humor? Also, think about the labor of the printing process that disseminates such imagery to wider public audiences than the sitter would have encountered in his day to day life. The industrialization of image production made it more accessible than ever. Editor: It seems there is social commentary at multiple levels of artistic creation! I appreciate you bringing in production into our view of the drawing’s cultural critique! Curator: Exactly! And by examining its process, its materials and cultural accessibility, we recognize that its apparent simplicity actually contains a layered narrative about labor, class and representation in early 20th century America.