Verbotene Fruchte, from the Actors and Actresses series (N145-8) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Duke Cigarettes 1890 - 1895

Curator: It has the sepia charm of a bygone era. Almost dreamlike, really. Editor: It certainly does. Here we have "Verbotene Fruchte," or "Forbidden Fruits," a photographic print dating from the 1890s, part of the "Actors and Actresses" series by W. Duke, Sons & Co., famed for their cigarette cards. You can find this little gem at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Curator: Cigarette cards... fascinating! It’s like a tiny stage for Victorian values. One woman reading, the other draped languidly... is it intimacy, or a staged tableau? Editor: Well, think about it: the 'forbidden fruit' motif ties back to Eve and the apple. Here, we see a possible "forbidden" closeness, perhaps suggesting hidden desires or affections, all coded within this little commercial card. The act of reading, particularly the sentimental literature popular at the time, was ripe for projecting romance onto relationships. Curator: It really is a carefully curated narrative, isn’t it? Those dramatic shadows... very 'genre-painting' meeting early photographic portraiture. It's like a miniature soap opera packed into a rectangle, whispering stories of societal expectations and hidden desires. I see a complex story bubbling beneath that delicate surface. It seems almost defiant, doesn't it? To put it so subtly, right under the nose of, dare I say, the patriarchy? Editor: Absolutely. Even the women themselves are archetypes. The thoughtful introvert, perhaps a bluestocking, contrasted with the relaxed confidante, the one initiating the physical contact, blurring friendship with something deeper. It challenges norms even as it presents a picture of accepted domesticity, ripe for psychological decoding. Curator: And so many cultural assumptions resting in this "portrait". It reminds me to really see beyond my 21st century mind, which is constantly searching for irony. So in closing, I think that little card packs a profound emotional punch; it makes me reflect on the different layers and possibilities in one simple gesture. Editor: Exactly. A little window into shifting societal mores, anxieties and perhaps secret delights of the late 19th century. Small in size, large in suggestive meaning.