Pearl Jackson, from the Actresses series (N246), Type 2, issued by Kinney Brothers to promote Sporting Extra Cigarettes 1888 - 1892

Curator: It has an air of dreamy languor, wouldn’t you agree? The sepia tones and her pose evoke a world of gentle ease. Editor: It's interesting how seemingly benign images like this of Pearl Jackson, an actress from the late 19th century, were used to promote, of all things, Sporting Extra Cigarettes by Kinney Brothers. Curator: Ah yes, from the Actresses series. Type 2, if you are collecting! Editor: Right. These trade cards were essentially advertising ephemera. But, stepping back, aren't they reflective of the commodification of women's images? Placed in the service of capital? Curator: A somber lens! Though she does have such a wistful face, lying there, caught between waking and sleep, and this card a vignette of longing—almost as if plucked from a dream. Editor: That wistfulness likely played right into it. Then, as now, a strategic fantasy; the woman as a thing to be acquired alongside... a smoke. Her relaxed position feels… performative. Curator: Mmm, possibly. The angle is low, emphasizing her face and décolletage. And yet I see softness—an intentional aesthetic, Pictorialist almost in its haziness, a remove from harsh reality? A gentle, romantic appeal. Editor: Agreed, the Pictorialist effect softens the edges of this, lets call it commerce, even aestheticizes it. However, can we separate aesthetics from their societal role? Can we forget about women and objects reduced to consumer bait? Curator: Point taken! But art is often made to persuade and to charm. Commerce can still allow beauty to flourish, no? Is this, I mean, are we seeing an actress, in character or simply posed? It feels deliberately posed for something akin to private enjoyment. Editor: Private enjoyment... made very public via mass distribution! Perhaps that is where some tension lies; a public depiction with carefully-placed intimacy, promising to anyone, if you will but buy something... Curator: Indeed, what once felt simple now holds deeper shadows and lights. Editor: Absolutely. Examining popular visual forms such as this commercial image grants perspective regarding their contribution towards enduring modes of social hierarchy, commodification and sexism.