Kate Uart, from the Actresses series (N245) issued by Kinney Brothers to promote Sweet Caporal Cigarettes 1890

Curator: Here we have "Kate Uart, from the Actresses series (N245)" printed around 1890. Kinney Brothers issued it as a promotion for Sweet Caporal Cigarettes, but it now resides at the Metropolitan Museum. Editor: The albumen print has such a beautiful sepia tone, but also projects such melancholy. There’s something vulnerable in her expression and the rather old-fashioned, bonnet-like hat that she wears. Curator: The portrait is very structured. The light evenly distributed; her gaze meets the camera. What's most striking to me is the triangle formed from the center of the top of her head down through the point where she holds her hands. This yields a visual economy. Editor: Absolutely, but I'm drawn more to the accouterments: The fur muff feels like a protective object, perhaps standing in for some sort of social buffer. It’s interesting what this reveals about turn of the century sensibilities and expectations. Curator: What stands out to me is that her clothing, aside from the fur muff, does very little to reveal the underlying figure. Consider that everything we see is merely light striking a surface; yet, this tonal value, while not highly contrasted, manages to present a cohesive and readable representation. Editor: Yes, and consider that she is framed by these elements. We are invited to see not just Kate Uart, the person, but "Kate Uart," the actress, a player in the theatre of life as it were, packaged and ready for consumption. After all, this card came with cigarettes! Curator: Her dress merges, tonally, with the backdrop; but that is its success! What may be perceived as flat contributes greatly to its success as a surface to examine for lines and curves, for changes in hue or tone, as all of these things contribute to its reading. Editor: So in that way, the visual austerity almost becomes a strength. It allows the viewer to contemplate a specific ideal or moment in time rather than the specific identity of the actress, Kate Uart. Curator: Exactly, what is seen is light, how light defines form, and how form comes to define a cohesive unity on the flat plane. Editor: Which, considering how she represents more than a mere woman of that era, it seems Kinney Brothers certainly got the effect that they were hoping for.