Sketch for a Poster

Charles Dana Gibson's pen-and-ink sketch presents a full-length Gibson Girl striding toward the viewer in a striped walking skirt, fitted blouse with leg-of-mutton sleeves, cinched belt, and upswept curls—the complete vocabulary of the idealized American New Woman of the 1890s. The caption reads simply C. D. GIBSON. / SKETCH FOR A POSTER., and Gibson's looping signature appears just above it. The image depicts this confident, self-possessed figure as an aspirational type—presenting the modern woman in fashionable elegance for a middle-class readership.