#33: All is Vanity Illustrated by Charles Allan Gilbert, 1892
Aren’t optical illusions fascinating? When we were younger, we all had those books with pictures that looked like nothing until we relaxed our eyesight and started seeing 3D figures. We spent hours staring at those things… Well, it turns out that even one hundred years ago, people were just as into the concept.
At first, you might not have seen it, but the more you look at this illustration you begin to understand. The fact that the illustration is called “All is Vanity” is quite a statement as well. It draws upon how fragile life is and just how self-absorbed we have all become… Which was apparently just as relevant of a concept in 1892.