Judge, 1897-02-06 · page 16 of 16
Judge — February 6, 1897 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This 1897 *Judge* satire mocks the emerging "Art Nouveau" poster movement and artistic pretension. A flamboyant poster-artist named "Daureay Smearsley" seeks criticism from "Old Boy," a conventional critic, on his garish, chaotic designs. The joke: Smearsley's posters are deliberately ugly and incomprehensible—swirling, distorted figures that look like "the jim-jams" (delirium tremens hallucinations). Yet he affects great artistic importance, calling himself "eminent" while producing visual garbage. The satire targets two things: avant-garde artists' self-seriousness despite creating bewildering work, and critics' pretense at understanding modern art movements they find baffling. The cartoonist suggests that "new school" poster art is essentially nonsensical—a diagnostic symptom of artistic madness rather than legitimate creativity. This reflects conservative Victorian resistance to modernist aesthetics emerging in the 1890s.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Daureay Sumarstay (the eccentric poster-artisf)—" Hello, Old Boy! Glad you called. I want to get your unbiased criticism on my latest poster design.” Mx, Oup Roy —" You flatter me, Smearsley—that my opinion aE Ree Ee a nae should’ ‘be ‘sought upon the works of 40 eminent a delineator of the himoelt fs the cenbrace aft ater nmare Oe nuld sons Imarine new school of art af yoursell, — —of a moat elegant case of the jim- jams, for instance — COPYRGNT 1897 BY THE JUDGE PUBLISKING COMPANY OF NEW YORK. Sue et me thank you kind wi ragement and vi Sockets Weabrs lithe Co New Yor, and if ever you're in the locality again THE POSTER-ARTIST AND THE CRITIC. comicbooks.com