Sheet music cover for Queen of the Bicycle Girls
Date1897
Artist
George Reiter Brill
(American illustrator, 1867–1918)
Illustration CitationSheet music cover for Queen of the Bicycle Girls. Supplement to The Philadelphia Press, October 3, 1897
MediumCommercial lithograph
Dimensionssheet: 14 1/8 × 10 5/8 in. (35.9 × 27 cm)
Credit LineGift of Helen Farr Sloan, 1977
Object number1977-62
On View
Not on viewClassificationsPRINT
Label TextBy 1900, the American musical theater and vaudeville entertainment were thriving, creating a lively market for sheet music. George Brill's imagery captures a contemporary mood, as a jaunty Gibson Girl-like woman enjoys the new freedom afforded by bicycle-riding. While her mutton-chop sleeves, wasp waist, and billowing skirt mark her as fashionable, her speeding along by herself on the open road suggests a new-found independence.George Brill studied at the Spring Garden Institute in his native Pittsburgh, and at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. His illustrations often appeared in major newspapers, especially in New York and Philadelphia, and he was also known for his poster art.
George Frederick Scotson-Clark
1895
Charles Dana Gibson
c. 1896
