Untitled 

Harrison Fisher made this ink drawing sometime in the early twentieth century. With economical strokes of diluted black ink on paper, Fisher captured a romantic moment between a man and woman in a garden. But what makes this image especially interesting is that Fisher was a highly successful commercial illustrator. He made his living producing images like these for books and magazines. He was even known as “the American girl’s Gibson.” Think for a moment about the material means of this image. The paper, the ink, the printing press, the mass-circulation magazines that Fisher worked for – all of these are features of the early twentieth century's culture of consumption. Fisher’s images like these helped to define standards of beauty and aspiration, and his images were themselves commodities. So, while this drawing appears effortless, it is in fact a crucial piece of evidence about the material culture of its time. It challenges us to consider illustration not as a minor art, but as a significant part of a complex social system.