"Of Course There Are Mermaids"

Gibson's pen-and-ink plate presents his signature creation—the Gibson Girl—posed on a rocky Atlantic shoreline, arms raised to her wind-caught hair, wearing the era's standard wool bathing dress with dark stockings. The caption beneath reads simply: Of course there are mermaids. The joke is flattering and pointed at once: this woman, so composed and physically self-possessed amid crashing surf, is the mythological creature. Gibson's Girl embodied a new ideal of the American woman—confident and athletic, physically at ease in her environment. The rocky foreground and churning sea are rendered with Gibson's characteristic cross-hatching, framing the figure as both naturalistic and emblematic.