Chasseur, Spain, 1853, from the Military Series (N224) issued by Kinney Tobacco Company to promote Sweet Caporal Cigarettes 1888

Editor: So, this is "Chasseur, Spain, 1853" from the Military Series, created in 1888 by the Kinney Tobacco Company. It's a drawing and a print. What I find fascinating is how something designed as essentially advertising can now be in the Met. What do you see in it? Curator: What grabs me is the tension between high art aspirations and the means of its production: this card served the explicit purpose of promoting Sweet Caporal Cigarettes. The lithographic process, designed for mass production, creates a kind of democratization of portraiture, right? Editor: Definitely. So it's not some royal commission, but a widely distributed image. How does that affect our reading of it? Curator: It makes us question the hierarchies inherent in art. Is this “lesser” because it was mass-produced, because its origin is commercial? The details, the materials – the ink, the paper stock, the industrial printing press – become really important. It is a fascinating view into labor, consumption, and even global trade. Editor: Interesting! So the material circumstances really dictate how we understand it. The card becomes more than just a picture of a soldier. Curator: Precisely. It reflects the industrial capacity, the labor practices, and the capitalist imperatives that underpinned even these seemingly simple images. Thinking about its production history shifts the whole experience. Editor: I've never really considered that angle before. Thanks! It sheds a new light not only on this particular image, but art in general. Curator: Absolutely. And it allows us to see how “art” can be embedded within and shaped by everyday objects and the forces of production.