M'lle de Lussan, from the Actors and Actresses series (N45, Type 1) for Virginia Brights Cigarettes 1885 - 1891

This small card was made by Allen & Ginter for Virginia Brights Cigarettes. It’s part of a series called “Actors and Actresses.” This image reveals the intersections of commerce, celebrity, and gender in the late 19th century. The actress, M’lle de Lussan, strikes a pose in theatrical garb. The cultural associations of theater – its perceived glamour, its moral ambiguities – were used to sell cigarettes. We can see how the marketing of tobacco products relied on the widespread distribution of celebrity images. By featuring actresses, cigarette companies like Virginia Brights targeted a specific kind of consumer. As art historians, we might ask: Who was M’lle de Lussan? What roles did she play? How did advertising images shape the status of women in the late 19th century? Answers to these questions will lie in archives of theatrical ephemera, publications on the history of advertising, and other resources of cultural history.