Card Number 17, cut-out from banner advertising the Opera Gloves series (G29) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes 1885 - 1895

This is Card Number 17, a cut-out from a banner advertising the Opera Gloves series by Allen & Ginter Cigarettes. The image presents a curious nesting of frames. We see a disembodied hand, rendered with careful stippling, holding a rectangular portrait of a woman. Below the portrait, an opera glove is outlined but with an empty space where one would expect the hand to be, leaving the number 17 as its only content. The hand, glove, and portrait each function as distinct representational planes. The portrait itself is meticulously framed within the larger image, suggesting layers of artifice and representation. The visual fragmentation invites us to question the stability of representation itself. Is it an early exploration of the part-whole relationship, anticipating later cubist strategies? The use of the fragment and the frame destabilizes established meanings, inviting us to deconstruct its visual structure. This creates a fascinating interplay between visibility and absence, representation and abstraction.