Miss Fannie Rice, from World's Beauties, Series 1 (N26) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes 1888

Curator: Ah, this portrait has an innocent sweetness about it. Look at that pink bow. Editor: Right, what we're gazing upon here is a card featuring "Miss Fannie Rice," part of the "World's Beauties, Series 1," produced in 1888 by Allen & Ginter Cigarettes. It’s currently housed here at The Met. What grabs you beyond the bow? Curator: It's all so blushingly romantic, I think. She reminds me of those sweet perfume ads. The pearl necklaces dripping, a rose perched just so… and yet there's also something…mass-produced about it. It’s a strange little combination, the intimate and the commercial. Editor: Definitely! The pearls evoke, for me, a Victorian obsession with adornment but presented here in the service of marketing, and it's done with such care. These weren’t slapdash things; the artists used colored pencils, sometimes even printing processes, to capture a delicate realism, however idealized. The Victorians equated pearls with purity, but these were also luxury objects flaunted as such! Curator: Like visual cigarettes. I’m struck, really, by how the pearls dangle freely, almost unconnected… A deliberate strategy, I wonder? And it all contrasts with this kind of generic beauty they're selling. Were these cards truly collectible, or simply meant to be disposable? Editor: Excellent point! Well, that "World's Beauties" series spoke directly to Victorian fascination with female images from the stage, for instance, while fueling tobacco sales. It tapped into aspirations, societal status and of course, conspicuous consumption! The images became quite ubiquitous during their day but also preserved specific beauties through popular media, much like postcards! It's also why she appears without narrative symbols, or objects; she is an archetype! Curator: I hadn't quite considered her archetypal role. What do you mean? Editor: She doesn't represent a biblical or historical personage but rather stands for generic "beauty" with its own evolving iconography and values of the time. She's the embodiment of ideal beauty to be replicated! And purchased, too, like Allen and Ginter Cigarettes! Curator: Looking again, I see that archetype playing out in her demure pose and upward gaze. An interesting way to distill notions of female beauty... Fascinating that even a small, ephemeral item like this has so much to say. Editor: Exactly, it allows a modern gaze into the aesthetics and marketing machinery of the Gilded Age! I wonder if she herself realized how broadly her image was being circulated…