M'lle Elza, from the Actors and Actresses series (N45, Type 8) for Virginia Brights Cigarettes 1885 - 1891

Curator: So this print, produced by Allen & Ginter between 1885 and 1891, is from their Actors and Actresses series. It's titled 'M'lle Elza,' and was originally made for Virginia Brights Cigarettes. Editor: It's incredibly striking! It has an old-world theatrical glamor, but the muted tones give it a melancholy feel. She looks both opulent and world-weary, like she is backstage between performances, reflecting in semi-darkness about all the men and places and triumphs of her stage life. I am obsessed! Curator: The cards in the Actors and Actresses series are quite evocative and played on the fascination with celebrity culture at the time. Beyond pure commerce and advertising, these small images tap into our human need to admire and immortalize public figures. Editor: I’m mostly interested in her costume. I love the fringed skirt and the ornamental blouse she’s wearing, a mix of luxurious details and fabrics that remind me a bit of Victorian Orientalism. It’s a snapshot of another place or time imagined through a Western lens. I wonder what the relationship of performer to role was for the average working actress in those days, and also how she negotiated being on constant public display. Curator: Precisely. Clothing and adornment held particular weight in constructing identity in an era before pervasive photography. Note, for example, how her jewels speak to a different kind of authority than her gesture; the arm across the head signals perhaps something closer to exhaustion and emotional labor, in sharp contrast to how we remember female performers in contemporary digital spaces, especially on stage, who appear to maintain all the more strength to perform with their complete physicality, a demand from female forms in a post-internet era of art. Editor: Well, that is one way of approaching it, definitely! I love getting a sense of that bygone world; it makes me consider all the ways we seek out and define ourselves within the grand narratives, from religion, sexuality, and self-determination to artistic vocation and stage careers. Curator: Absolutely! This small piece, born out of commercial need, holds up a tiny mirror to the broader historical forces that have shaped us. It also helps us understand a lost language of theatrical advertising. Editor: I love that! So very true. It seems that this unassuming little cigarette card opens up all kinds of avenues for considering celebrity, consumerism, art history and human emotion. A perfect synthesis of capitalism and culture, then and now, amen!