Grace Stewart, from the Actors and Actresses series (N45, Type 6) for Virginia Brights Cigarettes 1885 - 1891

Curator: So, what do you see? Editor: A wistful ghost posing by a table. A kind ghost, though...not spooky, melancholic maybe? Curator: It’s fascinating how photography functioned as advertising back in the late 19th century. This albumen print, part of the “Actors and Actresses” series produced between 1885 and 1891, was actually a cigarette card for Virginia Brights Cigarettes. The portrait features Grace Stewart, displayed here at The Met. Editor: Wait, a cigarette card? So, imagine someone casually flicking this beautiful image away after finishing a smoke? Tragic. Still, I do see some playful elegance—look at the dainty dress hem and the delicate detailing of the pedestal; it is funny to imagine that it once encouraged people to light up. Curator: That duality, the art object existing as fleeting commercial material, raises so many questions about value. What did it mean to collect these? To bestow value onto actors in this manner? To consume portraits along with a known carcinogen? It reflects shifting attitudes of consumer culture. Editor: Art changes its clothes according to fashion, always playing a role it's fitted to fill. Think about this moment—that small, fleeting stage prop of Grace Stewart and what did people do when they were face to face with their longing for beauty. Did it feed that ache? Make them feel anything? I am just grateful that there’s a museum which can keep the beauty so others might also feed their ache, and feel something as well. Curator: Indeed. These cards reveal a fascination with celebrity and image culture that pre-dates even cinema. To imagine it traveling like that…the intimacy between art and industry continues, just reshaped. Editor: That ghostly pallor, maybe it hints at the ephemerality of fame itself. The way we snatch at fleeting images, hoping to catch a little bit of magic or the allure of glamour to last. The portrait still has a tender charm. A whispered echo of long-lost elegance...and maybe, even health concerns, strangely enough.