James Reynolds, printer's sample for the World's Inventors souvenir album (A25) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes 1888

Curator: This striking portrait, titled "James Reynolds, printer's sample for the World's Inventors souvenir album (A25) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes," dates back to 1888. Editor: It's surprisingly delicate for a cigarette card! I mean, the rosy cheeks and gentle gaze… feels almost tender, doesn’t it? Curator: It does, doesn’t it? These cards, part of a larger series by Allen & Ginter, served as marketing tools inserted into cigarette packs. They tapped into the late 19th-century fascination with inventors and figures of accomplishment, turning them into collectible items. This one's a drawing, or print, offering a glimpse of the person behind the innovation. Editor: Clever, using the cult of personality to sell smokes! You know, I’m also seeing hints of impressionism in the way light hits his face, almost like a miniature Renoir on cardboard. Curator: Precisely! The artist manages to imbue the portrait with a sense of personality despite the constraints of the medium. It’s fascinating to consider how popular imagery intersects with art history. What does it say about who gets celebrated, and how? And why via something so ephemeral as a cigarette card? Editor: Exactly! It’s almost paradoxical, this quest for immortality captured on something so fleeting. Makes you think about what endures and why. Perhaps James Reynolds, forever blushing in this tiny frame, has achieved a weird kind of immortality. Curator: And the card itself now finds a home within a museum collection—an accidental archive, revealing so much about cultural priorities and consumption habits from another era. We assign so much worth now. Is he an artist himself, or related to Joshua Reynolds in anyway perhaps? Editor: Goodness, that’s set me pondering! It's a simple portrait, but full of social commentary and a wistful echo of a time when a cigarette could buy you a piece of someone's soul… or at least, their image. Curator: Absolutely, a curious relic that sparks reflections on fame, commerce, and the art of remembering.