Illustrations: Complement or Contradiction?

Harry McVickar drew 30 illustrations for the second edition of An International Episode, published in 1892. Of those images, 12 depict women and 13 depict men. What stands out the most is the difference in body language between McVickar’s portrayal of the sexes. While many of the women McVickar draws have their bodies facing away from the reader, there is not one man he draws with the same stance. Some men he depicts are facing to the side, however no man has his back turned entirely. This could imply that women have something to hide, or do not possess the same capacity for pellucidity that men do. On page 37, McVickar illustrates Mrs. Westgate. Her full body is in view, but her back is entirely to the reader. The lack of openness depicted in this image could be symbolic of her unavailability, because she is a married woman. The only other full body images of women offered in this text are titled “The Pretty Sister of Mrs. Westgate” and The “Two Pretty Girls.” If the only full-body images of women throughout the whole book consist of people that are explicitly deemed attractive, this could signify that McVickar feels that being an attractive woman makes you, symbolically, a fuller person. Although the image on page 37 is titled, simply, “Mrs. Westgate,” and there is no explicit mention of her being attractive, McVickar may also be implying that she is a fuller person through her marriage to a man. Thus, all of these women are superior to the illustrations of other women because they have already succeeded in attracting a man, or are deemed as having the potential to, as implied by their physical appearance. Another illustration portrays the Duchess of Suffolk and Lord Chamberlain. Although both of these titles indicate superior social standing, the duchess has her back turned to the reader, and the lord does not, although they are both looking to the right. One page features drawings of 8 different men and not one has their back to the reader. Furthermore, the only woman in the entire book who is looking directly at the reader is on page 44. The image is titled “The Web Lambeth is Warned Against,” and shows a woman at the center of the web, symbolizing a spider who spins her prey, men, in her web, thus consuming them. This could mean that McVickar believes that men are victim to women’s allurement, and become trapped by them. When viewing these images through the lens of the “New American Woman” James presents in An International Episode, one could surmise that this was McVickar’s way of subliminally disapproving of the kind of woman Bessie Alden represents. If Bessie Alden is meant to be a strong progressive female character, why position her story alongside images which seek only to devalue those attributes which transcend physical beauty?

When considering McVickar’s wider body of work, it could be said with almost certainty that the text and the illustrations of An International Episode stand in opposition. Bessie Alden is an educated woman, audacious enough to question Lord Lambeth’s authority, and eventually reject his proposal, though he is a nobleman. An International Episode showcases the beginnings of a New American Woman archetypal character that McVickar seeks to undo. In 1896, four years after his work with An International Episode, McVickar authored and illustrated his own book of verse, titled “The Evolution of Woman”. The first illustration provides readers with a preview of what is to come, appearing on the page of contents. It shows a man dressed for winter and the wind is so strong it is blowing his clothes around, as well as the tree behind him, and it reads “A Cold Day for Man”. The preface, titled “(A Man’s) Preface,” consists of a poem by E. Irenaeus Stevenson. Throughout it, he explains how bad women used to have it in Ancient times, and that now they’ve come a long way, so they should stop attempting to evolve further, because men liked them better as they were. Additionally, Stevenson claims that women are more likely to be loved if they allow men to dominate them. From the very beginning McVickar provides biblical imagery from the Garden of Eden, along with a poem saying it was she who “deceived [Adam, a man].” The following passages describe practices women endured in ancient times, along with very violent accompanying images. In addition to being victimized through these images, women are also sexualized, as is the case with the women lifting up their skirts to reveal their lingerie. Furthermore, they are depicted as victims of manual labor, as seen in one of the images that accompany the verse titled “Switzerland”. In addition to being organized historically, McVickar also categorizes women’s “progress” geographically, as if to speak for the experience of of all the women in the world, in every generation. As the book goes on, it provides drawings that supposedly show women achieving liberation, because they are playing sports, practicing law, and wearing pants. The last verse is titled “A.D. 1900,” which at the time, would have been in the near future, because this was published in 1896. It’s accompanying image shows a woman, wearing pants, lifting up a terrified man. McVickar believes that the fall of man is what is to come if women keep gaining standing. If this reveals how McVickar views women and balances of power, then the illustrations of An International Episode, done four years prior, could be looked at through an entirely new lens, which assumes that McVickar was trying to communicate how he did not find women, even in positions of high status, to be equal to the dominion of a man. The only instances in which women are drawn facing forward, or in an admirable way, are when they are illustrated as products of the male gaze, described in terms of their physical appearance, or their relationship to men. In an era marked by expanding social and political spheres for women, McVickar’s work defines him as an adversary of the women’s rights movement.