Judge — February 6, 1915 — page 11: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is a satirical poem accompanying an illustration of a fashionably dressed woman. The satire contrasts 18th-century artistic ideals with modern (early 20th-century) fashion and behavior. The poem references **Watteau**, the French Rococo painter known for depicting elegant, delicately dressed aristocratic women. The joke mocks the tension between two eras: Watteau's subjects were portrayed in refined, constrained garments that obscured their actual body shapes—leaving mystery about whether they were "roundly curved, or slim." The modern woman illustrated here, by contrast, wears a revealing dress with large circular cutouts (likely representing contemporary fashion's more exposed silhouette). The satire suggests that while this modern woman might inspire Watteau's art, she could never replicate the refined manners of his era—she's too much a "modern" woman to perform the graceful, controlled movements those old paintings implied. It's social commentary on how fashion and behavior have become more revealing and less restrained.