Groom, Washington, American League, from the White Border series (T206) for the American Tobacco Company 1909 - 1911

This small chromolithograph of a baseball player was made by the American Tobacco Company a long time ago, and it's mind blowing to think about how the technology of printing and image-making can impact the culture of looking. The image is so flat, yet it convinces you of the dimensionality of a person. I wonder what it was like to be the artist who made this? Did they have a photo? Did they invent him? The background blue feels like a solid wall, and this guy, Groom, seems like a real person, even though the rendering is so basic. The colors are like simple graphic signifiers of a person. It's kind of amazing how little it takes to make an image seem real. The "W" on his jersey is so declarative, but also just lines on a surface. I love how painters make something out of nothing, and here, the American Tobacco Company has made a guy out of ink.