The Wasp — 1895 — page 664: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page from *The Wasp* features a central illustration titled "The Art of the Day," depicting a woman viewing a framed painting. The caption indicates it's Legreve's painting "The Rival Violinists" from a San Francisco society exhibition. The accompanying humorous vignettes mock Victorian-era social pretensions and domestic life through short dialogue snippets: a wealthy lawyer's awkward marriage proposal, a discussion about "Holes" (likely ethnic stereotyping), servants' interactions, and various upper-class absurdities. The satire targets fashionable society's affectations, particularly around art appreciation and refined manners. The central woman's pose—gesturing dramatically before the painting—satirizes the affected appreciation of high culture among San Francisco's social elite, suggesting such posturing was theatrical rather than genuine.