Portrait of woman, from the Novelties series (N228, Type 2) issued by Kinney Bros. 1889

Curator: Here we have "Portrait of woman, from the Novelties series (N228, Type 2) issued by Kinney Bros.," dating to 1889. It's currently held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Editor: She's…striking. A certain vulnerability, perhaps? The circular frame gives it an intimate, locket-like feel. And what is it, some kind of lithograph? The dot matrix is quite visible. Curator: Yes, exactly! These cards were chromolithographs distributed by the Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company. Advertising ephemera really, aiming to make their brand synonymous with ideals of beauty. Editor: So, mass-produced. And yet, I can’t shake the sense of handcraft. Look at how the printed image almost simulates the blush on her cheeks. How do you see that playing out in consumption and culture? Curator: Mass production allowed this image and those ideals to be spread widely, normalizing specific aesthetics but it also created accessibility for the working classes and expanded advertising. A democratization of sorts… Editor: A complicated one, wouldn’t you say? The labor needed to produce these! Was it piece-work? Paid fairly? And of course, what’s the link to the Kinney Brothers’ manufacturing and sourcing of the tobacco? We must see that in the materiality of this drawing. Curator: Of course, such business was linked to a much wider international context of production and circulation of raw materials—as well as all kinds of inequalities related to labor. These cards served to distract from some very troubling realities. Editor: Indeed. And the subject is depicted as a classic beauty…an upper class ideal type perhaps? What narrative does this invoke about its female subject? Curator: Precisely. These cards frequently depicted actresses or other prominent women to further cement these links between brand association and consumer aspiration and it also offers a study on shifting ideals about femininity at the time. Editor: Thanks. It leaves you wondering how her image becomes both commodity and cultural currency within the confines of its creation. Curator: A compelling example of how advertising becomes so enmeshed with art and society!