Card Number 11, cut-out from banner advertising the Opera Gloves series (G29) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes 1885 - 1895

Curator: Looking at this artwork, "Card Number 11, cut-out from banner advertising the Opera Gloves series" from around 1885 to 1895 by Allen & Ginter, currently residing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it feels distinctly whimsical and almost surreal. What is your initial impression? Editor: My eye is immediately drawn to the odd hand holding the portrait; it's rendered in shades of green, which lends an unsettling yet intriguing mood. There's something very specific about this symbolic hand offering up the portrait of a lady. Curator: That "odd hand" as you call it, is an opera glove; these types of cards, which were advertisements in cigarette packs, tell us much about consumer culture and gendered presentation in that era. The woman, nestled in the hand, is simultaneously powerful and commodified, an object of desire both literally and figuratively. The gaze and positioning raise key questions. Editor: Yes, this really strikes a nerve, like an uncanny valley sensation of a symbol standing in for a woman. Hands offering or taking something appear often in myth and religion, usually implying transference of power, energy or agency. It appears here, but for a rather more sinister reason. What symbols do you see at work here, looking beyond the surface of the illustration? Curator: Absolutely, and think about the presentation! A fashionable woman, meticulously coiffed, adorns a product meant to be inhaled, quite literally consumed. Considering the emergent feminist movements of the time, how do you interpret the inherent tensions? Does this image solidify, or challenge those conventional roles? Editor: The portrait itself feels contained, almost like a cameo. Is it perhaps an acknowledgement that while fashion and presentation dictate societal standards, individuality will always try to permeate? The hand may offer the portrait but there's an echo of something older, an ancient symbol here and I'd love to look further into this idea. Curator: Perhaps Allen & Ginter weren't aiming to deconstruct societal expectations in a radical way. Still, acknowledging that images hold these complexities enables us to reassess what the rise in consumer marketing really represents. The use of coloured pencil for advertising at the time says so much about shifting artistic and cultural norms and it creates so much fascinating and fertile ground to continue analyzing and thinking critically. Editor: Indeed! It's an evocative picture that pulls together several, potentially contradictory readings. The past certainly holds a very powerful message for us still.