Manhattan Beach, from the Fancy Bathers series (N187) issued by Wm. S. Kimball & Co. 1889

Editor: This is "Manhattan Beach, from the Fancy Bathers series" created around 1889 by Wm. S. Kimball & Co., employing drawing, coloured-pencil, print, and watercolor. The artwork has a breezy, light-hearted feel. What stands out to you? Curator: I'm struck by the production of this piece. It was made for a tobacco company, suggesting a connection between leisure, consumption, and industrial processes in late 19th-century America. These trading cards were essentially advertisements, commodities meant to be collected and traded, thereby generating demand and profit. What about the choice of materials? The use of colored pencil, watercolor, and then printed speaks volumes to accessible luxury. Editor: So, the media themselves communicate social class aspirations? The ability to simulate higher art styles within a broadly distributed commercial medium feels pointed. Curator: Exactly. How does the scene's composition reinforce this connection to materiality and consumption? Look at how the woman's attire, though 'fancy,' also speaks to emergent commercial production of fashion and changing ideas around leisure itself. Editor: It is fascinating to view the image as a material object and consider how it served a broader commercial agenda beyond just aesthetics. I am thinking differently about art now. Curator: Indeed, understanding art means investigating the socio-economic contexts, from labor involved to consumer reach, broadening how we appreciate both intention and consequence.