Doubling in art is extremely popular, especially in the advent of social media. Taking one drawing made by one artist and recreating it is a common trend on social media, often resulting in hundreds if not thousands of art pieces that draw off of one common theme or composition. This piece by Charles Allen Gilbert is an example of this phenomenon; some artists take the illusion that was made in this painting and the themes that were introduced in this work, such as beauty, the consequences of preoccupation with beauty and death. With this artwork, one particular artist has taken the themes it presents, doubling it in their own work and incorporating their own themes to best serve the purpose of what the piece intends to convey.
Sophia Loreto uses the composition introduced by Charles Allen Gilbert to convey similar themes of egoism and a fixation with beauty, but also incorporates anger. Rather than the mirror remaining whole, it is suggested from the blood on both the mirror and on the character’s hand that the character broke the mirror himself. In a response to Loreto’s work, Loreto affirms how the piece is represented of the character’s trouble with managing his anger; this anger may be in some way thematically connected to beauty and death, given that the piece’s overall composition and message mostly remains unchanged aside from the broken, bloodied mirror. Thus, doubling in art is important to recognize as it can share and connect with the themes observed in other work.
