The Horse Show

Datec. 1901

Artist Harrison Cady (American illustrator, cartoonist, and author, 1877–1970)

Illustration CitationBrooklyn Daily Eagle, November 24, 1901

MediumInk, graphite, and gouache on board

Dimensionssheet: 23 × 28 15/16 in. (58.4 × 73.5 cm)

Credit LineF. V. du Pont Acquisition Fund, 1986

Object number1986-47

On View

Not on view

ClassificationsDRAWING

Label TextFrom August 1901 to February 1902, the artist published "...as seen by Harrison Cady" semi-regularly in the Sunday editions of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle newspaper. The pages were both visual and verbal commentaries on the social foibles of the elite and working class alike. The elegant lady at the center crystallizes Cady's view that the entire "show" is an opportunity for the upper class to see and be seen.

Cady was encouraged to draw scenes of animals and insects by his naturalist father.
He sold his first illustration to Harper's Young People in 1897. He then had success at St. Nicholas and then at Life, where he joined the staff as an artist and cartoonist in 1901. During his 18 years at Life and later, Cady contributed to a range of children's books, calling on his early experience with animals to illustrate Peter Rabbitt, and also wrote and illustrated several of his own stories and books.