Life — December 14, 1916 — page 17: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This single-panel cartoon depicts a man in artist's robes showing a painting to an elegantly dressed woman in what appears to be an art studio. The caption reads: "How do you painters feel about this craze for old masters?" / "It makes us wish we were dead." The satire targets the art world's obsession with Old Masters paintings during this period. The joke is that contemporary painters feel obsolete and demoralized because wealthy collectors and society figures are exclusively pursuing historical artworks rather than supporting living artists. The woman's fashionable appearance suggests she represents the moneyed class driving this collecting trend. The cartoon mocks both the snobbery of art collecting and the economic hardship it creates for working painters of the era.