Mlle. Dauville, Paris, from the Actors and Actresses series (N171) for Old Judge Cigarettes 1886 - 1890

Curator: It strikes me as somewhat haunting. It’s sepia tones lend an air of antiquated beauty, but also of something… lost. It feels strangely disconnected from the gaiety one might associate with an actress from Paris. Editor: We’re looking at "Mlle. Dauville, Paris," one of the trade cards from the Actors and Actresses series (N171) created for Old Judge Cigarettes between 1886 and 1890 by Goodwin & Company, New York. Curator: Trade cards. Right! Marketing ploys from the Gilded Age… Suddenly, this mysterious quality becomes much more comprehensible as a strategic device aimed at cigarette consumption. How clever! Editor: Exactly! The photograph—or rather, photographic print—was strategically used. The Old Judge Cigarettes sought to embed themselves within popular culture and did so using images like this which are now held at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Curator: The actress, Mlle. Dauville, seems to pose in some outdoor tableau, but that pose feels very… deliberate. She's almost theatrical, if that makes sense, as she leans against a staff, but the effect falls a bit flat. She is at once there, present, yet also rather inaccessibly distant from me. Editor: I’d argue the staged quality, the studied exoticism if you will, sells the promise of a different world. Perhaps Mlle. Dauville, through this portrayal, embodies a life more thrilling than the mundane daily life of the late 19th-century consumer? The slight erotic overtones in the photograph would also reinforce that alluring appeal. Curator: It makes me wonder, did she see much of the profits of these cigarettes. These early advertisements remind me that it's also essential to scrutinize not just the spectacle, but who's paying whom, and who’s being exploited… in the shadows behind the dazzling spectacle. Editor: Absolutely. Analyzing these cultural artifacts is never simply a question of admiring the technique or image—rather, these are also valuable lenses for dissecting issues of production, advertising, and social mores within an expanding capitalist framework. Curator: So, we find a potent, concentrated capsule of historical aesthetics bound up with economics and performance... a complex brew to say the least.