Life, 1911-12-07 · page 100 of 112
Life — December 7, 1911 — page 100: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is primarily an advertisement for an illustrated gift book by Coles Phillips, a prominent commercial illustrator of the early 20th century. The image shows a stylized woman in fashionable dress seated at a vanity mirror—representing the "up-to-date American girl" of that era. The satire is subtle: Life magazine is promoting a collection celebrating modern femininity while the accompanying illustration depicts a woman absorbed in her appearance at a mirror. The humor lies in the gentle mockery of contemporary female vanity and the commercialization of beauty ideals. The book promises forty color pages and forty black-and-white studies, priced at $3.00. The notation that Life's best covers appear in this collection suggests the magazine endorsed Phillips's artistic depictions of fashionable women as representative of contemporary American girlhood—itself a form of social commentary on how women were culturally defined through aesthetic ideals.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
A GALLERY . fGIRLS by COLES PHILLIPS — COLES PHILLIPS A unique and striking gift-book, with forty lovely pages in full color, and forty studies in black and white, of — ~ the up-to-date American girl. Beautiful cover in color. . Ina box, $3.00\net, postage 29 cents. i THE CENTURY Co. ~ NEW YORK The best covers that “Life” has had for years are ¥ in this book,—each one printed like a fine proof. comicbooks;¢om