Horse Chasseur, Spain, from the Military Series (N224) issued by Kinney Tobacco Company to promote Sweet Caporal Cigarettes 1888

Curator: Well, this fellow strikes a rather dashing figure, doesn't he? All straight lines and jaunty angles. It's a calling card if I ever saw one. Editor: Indeed! It's chromolithograph print, a late 19th century piece entitled “Horse Chasseur, Spain, from the Military Series (N224).” The Kinney Tobacco Company, hoping to boost sales of Sweet Caporal Cigarettes in 1888, included it in a series of cards that were collected at the time. Curator: Ah, so a tiny bit of exotic flair tossed in with your tobacco! That makes perfect sense, really. It’s marketing using the cultural phenomenon called Orientalism. How does it play here? Editor: I see it in the detail—in the vibrant reds and blues of his uniform, creating an almost caricatured image of Spanish militarism for an American audience. Curator: And oh, what a splendid little beard! It screams "I am important" while whispering "and perhaps just a bit whimsical." A true artist of facial hair. He’s such a tightly wound spring, full of tension in this composed portrait. I sense a man on the verge. Perhaps, he misses his family or has not seen combat. What do you sense in that calm façade? Editor: What intrigues me is its mass-produced nature versus the intimate scale of the portrait. Think about it. Kinney Tobacco created these collectible pieces meant to circulate and be traded—ubiquitous little images carrying with them cultural and political undertones. What story does such cultural exportation begin? Curator: Hmmm, maybe a complicated, twisted knot of cultural understanding and exotic commercial appeal! He’s become more than just an advertisement. This unassuming bit of ink, paper, and hope, carries with it an entire world waiting to be unraveled. Editor: A pocket-sized history lesson packaged with every cigarette, so to speak. Quite a statement, don't you think?