C. Allan Gilbert (1873-1929) American, Framed "All is Vanity" Poster. One of the most famous and frequently published memento mori images in history, showing a woman at her vanity that appears to be a skull when observed at a distance. Attribution and title at bottom. 

Condition: Good. 

Overall Size: 13 3/4 x 10 3/4 in. 

Sight Size: 12 3/4 x 0 3/4 in. 

Charles Allan Gilbert, best known as C. Allan Gilbert, was born in Hartford, Connecticut on September 3rd, 1873. The youngest of three sons, he was an invalid for much of his childhood, resulting in him drawing and sketching in bed to amuse and occupy himself. At the age of sixteen he began to study art under Charles Noel Flagg, the official portrait painter for the State of Connecticut, who had also founded the Connecticut League of Art Students. In 1892 he enrolled at the Art Students League of New York, where he remained for two years before moving to France. He spent a year there studying with Jean-Paul Laurens and Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant at the Academie Julien in Paris, before returning to New York City to work as a freelance illustrator for books, magazines, posters, and calendars. His works were frequently published in Scribner’s, Harper’s, Atlantic Monthly, and other leading magazines. His most famous piece is a widely reproduced drawing of a memento mori or vanitas titled All Is Vanity, first published in Life Magazine in 1902. The drawing employs a double image (or visual pun) in which the scene of a woman admiring herself in a mirror of her vanity table, when viewed from a distance, appears to be a human skull. The title is also a pun, as this type of dressing-table is also known as a vanity. Gilbert was also an early contributor to animation, crafting Art Nouveau inspired silhouettes for moving shadow plays. He also made posters to aid the selling of war bonds and was a camouflage artist (or camoufleur) for the U.S. Shipping Board during World War I. In his final decade he spent most of his years on Monhegan Island in Maine for health reasons, and died in New York City of pneumonia on April 20th, 1929.

Good.