Irene Verona, from the Actors and Actresses series (N171) for Gypsy Queen Cigarettes 1886 - 1890

This is a trading card of Irene Verona, an actress, from the "Actors and Actresses" series for Gypsy Queen Cigarettes. This small card encapsulates a world of late 19th-century iconography. Consider the feathered hat, a symbol of status and allure. These feathers, reaching upwards, echo the Winged Victory of antiquity, a figure laden with associations with triumph and aspiration. Yet, here, they adorn a figure associated with the stage, a space of illusion and performance. The theatrical world has always been a place of dreams and desires, where the boundaries between reality and fantasy blur. This connection between the classical and the contemporary, between victory and performance, shows us how symbols are reborn, and how our collective memory constantly reshapes them. The image engages us on a deep, subconscious level. It reminds us that history is not a linear march but a cyclical dance of recurring motifs.