Card Number 348, Rosa Wilson, from the Actors and Actresses series (N145-5) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Cameo Cigarettes 1880s

Curator: This photograph, dating from the 1880s, presents a portrait of Rosa Wilson. It's card number 348 in a series of "Actors and Actresses" issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote their Cameo Cigarettes. It's part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection. Editor: It strikes me immediately as playful, but with a layer of commercial intention. Her pose is both jaunty and very self-aware. It's staged to catch the eye. The high contrast of the image also commands attention. Curator: Indeed. The very materiality contributes to this: these were trade cards, designed for mass consumption. Note how the printing quality is necessarily geared toward quick replication and dissemination, unlike a finely rendered photographic print intended for gallery display. Editor: Exactly. Her costuming is key, isn’t it? The striped bathing suit seems surprisingly modern. Her placement is so visually forward in space with an almost barren landmass in the background that has some distant structure far off that it almost doesn't read as land but more a flat planar stage as the title says "actors and actresses." What do you think that does for the work? Curator: Precisely! It’s carefully calibrated visual language meant to equate leisure and glamour with smoking. She is staged atop a rocky outcrop, with the horizon implied in the backdrop to suggest a landscape view, though rather simplistic. Her gaze drifts to her right just beyond the frame of the artwork, with her knee raised as though she were waiting for something important. Editor: Beyond the intended salesmanship, what can we infer about societal values from such imagery at that time? She's wearing some interesting garb for her time with the striped swimming garments showing both modesty with hosiery and skin with her shorts that only go half way down her thigh, which does leave some room to imagination as a result of some very suggestive decisions made. Curator: The distribution of these cards reflects the emergence of consumer culture and celebrity. Popular actresses were early influencers of their day. Also the style and genre conventions speak to social expectations around image. This genre was common, and its popularity tells of a time finding new representation styles during a changing media scene in art and portraiture. Editor: Interesting. In my opinion, I see this piece as a nexus between burgeoning commercialism and evolving perceptions of public personas. Its design suggests a keen understanding of how art and imagery can converge to drive commercial enterprise.