Mlle. Besoin, from the Actors and Actresses series (N145-8) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Duke Cigarettes 1890 - 1895

Editor: Here we have "Mlle. Besoin, from the Actors and Actresses series," dating between 1890 and 1895, created by W. Duke, Sons & Co. It looks like a photograph printed for Duke Cigarettes, and something about the sepia tone and theatrical backdrop gives it a staged, almost dreamlike quality. What can you tell me about it? Curator: It's crucial to understand these trade cards as products deeply embedded in a burgeoning consumer culture. Consider the labor involved: from the cultivation of tobacco to the printing presses churning out these images. Each card represents a chain of production. Editor: So you’re seeing it less as art and more as a... commodity? Curator: Exactly! Think about the intended use. It's not meant to be hung in a gallery. It's a promotional tool, distributed with cigarettes, enticing consumers. The choice of actresses is strategic—selling both a product and a lifestyle. Do you see how the photograph itself functions almost as another type of material, carefully produced to fulfill a market need? Editor: That makes sense. So the ‘art’ here is really the marketing. But, it also captures something about that era’s popular culture, right? The celebrity… Curator: Certainly. But through a lens of mass production and distribution. And that is important to see how a system of production informs not just the work itself but its reception and its very definition. Editor: It's interesting to consider how this little piece connects to the broader economy and society of its time. I hadn’t thought about it like that at all. Curator: Absolutely. Analyzing these cards through a materialist perspective reveals the intricate networks of labor and consumption shaping even seemingly simple images like this one.