Polo Girl, from the series "Hamilton King Girls" (T7, Type 6), issued by Turkish Trophies Cigarettes 1913

Hamilton King's "Polo Girl," one of a series, was issued with Turkish Trophies Cigarettes, and, you know, it's quite something! I can just see King, back then, wrestling with the paper, coaxing those soft pastels to life. There's something so delicate in the way the colors are laid down, a gentle touch that belies the graphic punch of the image. Her clothes are so interesting, all angles and curves, echoing those frames she's stood against. I wonder, what was he thinking when he made her hat such a prominent feature? Was it a nod to fashion, or a statement about her status? Maybe it was just that he wanted to try and catch a certain kind of light. King was part of a much wider conversation, you know, all those artists drawing and painting each other, stealing and borrowing ideas from each other across time. Each painting becomes this embodied expression, embracing the ambiguity and uncertainty, so we're able to see and read it in many different ways.