Bracing Up, from the Jokes series (N87) for Duke brand cigarettes 1890

This is "Bracing Up", a chromolithograph card from the Jokes series for Duke brand cigarettes, made around the turn of the century by W. Duke, Sons & Co. The image presents a full figure portrait set against a pale ground. Predominant forms are shaped by an animated line that captures the figure of an older man. The composition uses a restricted palette. Soft shades of pink, blue and brown add volume to the figure and suggest the texture of his weathered clothing. His hunched posture creates a dynamic angularity, intensified by the exaggerated features of his face. The overall effect is one of playful exaggeration, a visual joke, which in semiotic terms invites us to decode cultural codes. The artist uses exaggeration to subvert conventional portraiture and challenge established categories of representation. Rather than presenting an idealized image, it embraces caricature. This disruption destabilizes fixed meanings, highlighting the fluid and often contradictory nature of cultural representation.