The Wasp — 1890 — page 397: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page satirizes *The Wasp* magazine's own art department and hiring practices. The top panel shows rejected sketches labeled "POND" and other submissions being critiqued by art critics. The middle section, titled "ELEVATOR SHAFT," depicts a young job applicant being interviewed and then escorted to an opening—literally thrown down an elevator shaft into the basement ("Into which he enters with zest"). The bottom sketch shows the applicant finally drawing, captioned "Drawing at last—but not the kind he wants!" He's now illustrating beer advertisements rather than serious art. The satire mocks both the magazine's pretensions to artistic standards and the harsh realities facing struggling artists who must accept degrading commercial work to survive.