Card Number 342, Mlle. Meynadier, from the Actors and Actresses series (N145-7) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Duke Cigarettes 1880s

This is a promotional card for Duke Cigarettes, featuring Mlle. Meynadier, likely an actress, created by W. Duke, Sons & Co. The image presents the actress in an open robe, seated on a draped plinth. It echoes a classical motif, a Venus Pudica. Here, the plinth signifies her elevation, yet the theatrical draping adds to a sense of staged intimacy. This pose, found in ancient sculptures, was a gesture of modesty and a potent symbol of female virtue and beauty. But observe how it has transmuted. The coy gesture of covering the body becomes a display, a commercial lure. We see it repeated in countless images across time, each instance a negotiation between privacy and spectacle. It reveals how deeply our collective memory and subconscious desires shape these visual performances. The actress, like Venus, is an object of desire, her image traveling through time, reformed and repurposed, a testament to the enduring power of symbols in our cultural psyche.