The Wasp — 1895 — page 237: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This satirical cartoon depicts an artist showing his work to a potential buyer. The dialogue reveals the joke: the artist admits he began the painting two years ago but has "quite forgotten what I intended for it." The satire targets artistic pretension and incompetence—mocking artists who either lack clear vision or abandon their work incomplete, yet still attempt to sell it. The wealthy-dressed "fair admirer" questioning whether it's "artistic" suggests the cartoon critiques the art market's tendency to accept vaguely conceptual or unfinished work as legitimate art, provided it appears sufficiently mysterious or "artistic." The humor lies in the artist's honest admission of creative failure presented as if the work still has merit.