Lanfranco, from the Actors and Actresses series (N45, Type 1) for Virginia Brights Cigarettes 1885 - 1891

Curator: Isn’t she lovely? We're looking at a portrait called "Lanfranco," part of the Actors and Actresses series from 1885-1891. It's by Allen & Ginter for Virginia Brights Cigarettes and currently resides at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Editor: It feels like a little jewel. Something precious plucked from the everyday, but then again, these cigarette cards really blur those lines, don't they? It feels simultaneously intimate and strangely…mass-produced. Curator: Precisely! Imagine this—tiny portraits slipped into packs of cigarettes. On the one hand, you've got photographic technology democratizing portraiture. On the other, commodifying it. Lanfranco, whoever she was, became both celebrity and commodity, literally packaged for consumption. Editor: And consider the labor. These weren't just photographic prints, they also employed printing and drawing elements. This all hints at production chains far beyond the photographer. So, what can this format—the cigarette card—tell us about consumption, class, and identity at the time? Was it meant to convey high-end appeal with portraits? What materials did they use? Curator: Definitely luxury meeting the mundane. The photographic process, that creamy, almost dreamy quality of the image paired with its function—as an advertising tool—creates a really interesting tension. This, to me, encapsulates that Gilded Age fascination with image, fame, and commercialism all at once. It also reminds us of the transient nature of fame and how, perhaps, we’re not all that different today. Editor: It also reflects on our disposable culture in a curious way, considering we're still admiring the piece in a museum. A little rebellion by material culture! Curator: Well, thinking about her now I can’t help wonder, who was Lanfranco outside this tiny rectangle? A real actress? A singer perhaps? A complete fabrication for marketing? That, in itself, feels terribly poignant and haunting. Editor: Agreed. Let's hope continued critical engagement brings pieces like this and more obscured makers and subjects, into their own renewed forms of light and consumption.