Studies in Expression: In the Monkey House

Gibson sets his crowd scene at a zoo's monkey house, a venue that lets him play the title's double meaning: the visitors are the exhibit. A top-hatted dandy with a waxed mustache anchors the left, posturing unconsciously; two Gibson Girls in full S-curve silhouette occupy the right, one glancing sidelong at a uniformed officer. A boy, women in full skirts, and assorted hat-wearing backs fill the middle distance. The 'studies in expression' conceit—borrowed from academic life-drawing language—mocks the bourgeois crowd's vanity and social performance. Gibson's satire is class comedy: fashionable New Yorkers, preening before caged animals, cannot see that the comparison runs both ways.