William Ely Hill
Pioneer of dual-image optical illusion illustrations
William Ely Hill was an enormously popular illustrator during the first half of the twentieth century. He drew for Life and Puck and had his own weekly page of illustrations, titled "Among Us Mortals," in the Sunday New York Tribune. His 1915 drawing for Puck, "My Wife and My Mother-in-law," is perhaps one of the best-known examples of a dual image--it is a drawing that at once depicts a young woman and an old crone, where the young woman's chin serves as the nose of the old woman. Hill also drew the dust jacket art for the first editions of F. Scott Fitzgerald's This Side of Paradise (1920) and Flappers and Philosophers (1920). Bohemians and artists, commuters and theater-goers all found themselves captured (and sometimes caricatured) in drawings of W. E. Hill.
Artworks by this artist (83 total)
- This is the man who tells his wife that ‘woman’s place is in the home’ 1912
- Christmas shopping 1926
- Made in America 1914
- Monday night at the opera 1926
- The artist’s model 1926
- The manicure 1910
- The recital 1926
- The scenic railway 1926
- Christmas Puck 1913
- Oh, you grand grand opera! 1913
- Built for speed; 1912 model 1912
- The ladies’ life class 1926
- A modern tantalus 1911
- The book department 1926
- The fast cat 1926
- The free thinker 1926
- The toilet goods counter 1926
- Unruly Arthur 1926
- The retort brutal 1913
- Did she fall or was she on 1910