Captain, Royal Escort, Spain, 1886, from the Military Series (N224) issued by Kinney Tobacco Company to promote Sweet Caporal Cigarettes 1888

This chromolithograph, "Captain, Royal Escort, Spain, 1886," was created by the Kinney Tobacco Company as part of their Military Series to promote Sweet Caporal Cigarettes. The overall impression is one of carefully ordered visual elements. The Captain is rigidly centered, bisecting a landscape rendered in horizontal strokes of tan and blue. A dynamic tension arises from the stark contrast between the Captain’s meticulously detailed uniform—with its bright reds and regimented lines—and the more loosely defined background. This tension may reflect a broader cultural preoccupation with defining national identity through displays of military power and the exotic ‘other.’ The composition, therefore, becomes a field of signs in which the artist uses visual codes to negotiate ideas about power, identity, and representation. It invites us to consider how such images both reflect and reinforce societal values.