This cartoon was published during James Thurber’s early years as a regular contributor to The New Yorker, where he worked as both writer and artist. By the early 1930s, his cartoons had begun to appear with some frequency, helping to define the magazine’s tone: understated, literary, and visually unconventional.
The drawing is a typical example of Thurber’s style. His characters are rendered with minimal, almost primitive lines—an aesthetic shaped in part by his declining vision. Thurber lost most of the sight in one eye during a childhood accident, and his eyesight continued to deteriorate throughout his life. As a result, many of his cartoons were drawn in black crayon or pencil on oversized paper, then resized for publication by the magazine’s art department.
This cartoon uses a simple two-character scene with a visual absurdity—the seal on the headboard—introduced without narrative buildup. That approach was common in Thurber’s work. He frequently combined ordinary domestic scenarios with surreal elements, often leaving their presence unexplained. These cartoons appeared alongside his essays and short fiction, contributing to his reputation as one of the defining voices of The New Yorker in its formative decades.
courtesy: cartoonstock.com
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