Life, 1908-12-03 · page 30 of 68
Life — December 3, 1908 — page 30: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This Life magazine page satirizes how famous historical artists would fare if working in the modern (early 20th-century) commercial world. Each panel reimagines a master painter as an advertiser: - **Julien Dupré** (landscape painter) becomes a chocolate beverage pitchman - **Gilbert Stuart** (portraitist) sells breakfast cereals - **Leonardo da Vinci** appears as a patent medicine advertiser—the caption jokes that his genius would be "recognized" only by quack medicine companies - **Corot** (landscape painter) advertises soap The satire mocks both: (1) the commercialization of art and (2) the prevalence of dubious patent medicines and mass advertising of the era. The implication is that serious art has no place in modern consumer culture—only commercial hucksterism does. The dialogue snippet at bottom appears unrelated.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
oe || PERS? Art That Might Have Been Different If Painted To-day = ; pa = | | | | | GILBERT STUART WOULD HAVE DONE WELL IN THE BREAKFAST FOOD LINE COROT MIGHT READILY HAVE MADE PRIENDS WITIL TILE SOAP Y, LIT Sax, DOPUNK cured me.” Y PEOPLE LEONARDO NO DOUBT WOULD HAVE BEEN CONSIDERED A GENIUS ARES Vou mostigive cousin Rate seometlag for:Chein BY THE PATENT MEDICINE ADVERTISERS mas, dear. It isn’t the value of the thing you know, but the thought Husnaxp: Umph! I guess it will be just as well if cousin “DOBBIE, have you been fighting again?" Kate doesn't know too much about the thought that will go “No, ma’am, Same old fight.’ with it