Miss Crouzet, from the Actresses series (N246), Type 1, issued by Kinney Brothers to promote Sporting Extra Cigarettes by Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company

Miss Crouzet, from the Actresses series (N246), Type 1, issued by Kinney Brothers to promote Sporting Extra Cigarettes 1888 - 1892

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drawing, print, photography, gelatin-silver-print

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portrait

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drawing

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print

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charcoal drawing

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photography

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pencil drawing

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gelatin-silver-print

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genre-painting

Dimensions: Sheet: 2 3/4 × 1 5/8 in. (7 × 4.2 cm)

Copyright: Public Domain

Editor: This is a photograph of Miss Crouzet, from the Actresses series, dating from around 1888 to 1892, produced by Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company. It’s a gelatin silver print, small and intimate. I’m curious about the conventions of beauty at the time; it has this dreamlike quality, doesn't it? How do you interpret this work? Curator: Indeed. The "actress" as a figure embodies a certain… malleability, don’t you think? They become vessels for projecting desires, anxieties. Kinney Brothers weren't selling art; they were selling an image linked to pleasure. This format, trading cards in cigarette packs, was a potent vector of cultural memory. What stories does Miss Crouzet tell, in your mind? Editor: I guess it tells the story of celebrity… a carefully constructed persona meant for consumption, mass consumption. But it also hints at the anonymity of it all; she's an archetype as much as an individual. Curator: Precisely! And think about the symbolism – the soft focus, the slightly suggestive pose – these were codes understood within the culture. Photography democratized image production but also shaped the symbolic language that linked products and aspirations. Editor: It’s like they're selling a feeling, a lifestyle connected to smoking… by using a woman’s image. Sort of like a collectible… almost a… secular icon? Curator: Exactly. A secular icon that carries the hopes, desires, and fears of the late 19th century, packaged with a cigarette. An actress embodies a constructed identity, reflecting broader shifts in our modern world. Do you see how that intersects here? Editor: I do, the mass production of these images creates a fascinating web between commerce, representation, and identity. So, the images become more than just promotional material... Curator: Precisely! They become artifacts of our collective longings, and anxieties.

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