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is Vanity Vanitas Vanitatum, Omnia Vanitas. The biblical phrase above was the inspiration for this allegorical, ambiguous illusion. The phrase translates as; “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” The passage is from Ecclesiastes 1:2, in which King Solomon expounds on the vanities of the world. Charles Allen Gilbert designed the classic illusion in 1892. It can be seen as a pretty girl and her reflection in a vanity mirror, or; as an ominous skull in the background. Both aspects share the same picture elements. The illusion was introduced to the public inside of a small 5-cent railway pamphlet in 1902. Even by 1902 standards the drawing was a instant commercial success, as people clambered for copies, and remains today as the most reproduced illusion in history. Notables such as Rebekah Baines Johnson, teacher and mother of the 36th US president Lyndon B. Johnson often referred to the print in her small Texas classroom. Charles Gilbert is credited with many artistic contributions during his career, including several covers for the Saturday Evening Post. However, contemporary artists such as Alexander Flagg, Andrew Wyeth, and Norman Rockwell captured much of the limelight, and Gilbert spent much of his career in relative obscurity. He died in 1923 and never produced another optical illusion drawing. Sadly, many reproductions of the Vanity are now copies of copies of copies, and this has greatly diluted print quality over the last hundred years. Thank goodness SandlotScience.com is a resource for the finest prints available. Our Vanity print is the best reproduction available; bar none. Check it out. SandlotScience holds a Derivative Copyright on this image. All rights reserved. View the Image Above Larger |
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