Defamiliarizing Art

This painting is called “All is Vanity” by Charles Allen Gilbert and it depicts a woman looking at herself in the mirror. At a first look it seems to be only that, but as you take a second look you can see an image of a skull. The woman that is immersed with herself in the mirror is part of a micro point of view. The macro point of view is that image as a whole, where the skull is revealed. The painting was drawn in 1892, at the height of self absorption. Gilbert attempts to make a representation of the 19th century woman. When I view this image, I am reminded of William Thackeray’s novel, Vanity Fair, in which Thackeray satirizes England in the 19th century. Both examples look at vanity from a negative perspective. Both men and women were and still are guilty of this deadly sin. The artists’ efforts to warn people about vanity are clear. It may not necessarily be that vanity will literally kill you, but perhaps it kills you from the inside as a person. It becomes so that you are so infatuated with yourself, you forget what is going around you.