Cover of Harper's Bazar, January 1913
Date1913
Artist
Elbert Sharkey
(American illustrator, 1887–1953)
Illustration CitationCover of Harper's Bazar, January 1913
MediumWatercolor, gouache, and graphite on illustration board
Dimensions28 × 18 1/2 in. (71.1 × 47 cm)
Credit LineGift of John Sloan Memorial Foundation, 1982
Object number1982-5
On View
Not on viewClassificationsDRAWING
Label TextTo attract buyers at the news stand, a magazine cover had to be graphically compelling while also declaring the nature of the magazine's contents. Elbert Sharkey set this woman in her fashionable winter attire against a minimal but elegant backdrop. The spelling of the magazine's title was changed to "Bazaar" in 1929.Founded in 1867, Harper's Bazar's inaugural issue described the magazine as "a repository of fashion, pleasure, and instruction." It was the third of Harper and Brothers' periodicals, following upon Harper's New Monthly Magazine and Harper's Weekly, and targeted at well-off women. Its first editor was Mary Louise Booth, a multi-lingual translator, journalist, abolitionist, and women's rights advocate. Besides fashion, she published writers such as Charles Dickens, George Eliot, and Henry James; she modeled Harper's Bazar on British magazines that featured a range of topics including the etiquette and society of the upper classes. The changing roles of women became evident in the magazine's attempt to balance respect for home-making with what the
editors called the "absolute bondage" of being dedicated only to a husband and children.
