Theater actress Rose Lemoine is the subject of this Cabinet Card photographed by the Dana studio of New York. The photograph was part of the Charles L. Ritzmann collection. Ritzmann was a famous importer of theatrical photographs. The attractive Ms Lemoine was thought by some to be the model or the “Gibson Girl”. This upset some Americans because Lemoine was from Cuba, not the United States and the “Gibson Girl” was illustrator Charles Dana’s personification of the feminine ideal. The “Gibson Girl” was a popular figure for twenty years (about 1890-1910). Lemoine’s mother was Cuban and her father was a French coffee planter. In 1903, the New York Times mentions Lemoine as appearing in a Broadway play called “The Best of Friends”. Also appearing in that play was Lionel Barrymore and Agnes Booth.
ROSE LEMOINE: PRETTY THEATER ACTRESS AND POSSIBLE MODEL FOR THE “GIBSON GIRL”
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I believe that Evelyn Nesbit was the model for the Gibson girl. I must do some reseasrch !
Pam, thanks for your comment. You are correct about Evelyn Nesbitt being a model for the gibson girl but it seems that there were multiple models for the gibson girl including Gibson’s wife, Irene Langhorne and in addition, the well known actress, Camille Clifford. Munsey Magazine (1898) reported that Rose Lemoine was the “newest aspirant” to be the model for the Gibson Girl. The article goes on to say that “original Gibson Girl was evolved in the artists brain”. It seems that the Gibson girl was actually a composite of many woman. Many of his earliest models were young society girls.
She is so beautiful!
Very nice!