Clara St. Maur, from the Actresses series (N245) issued by Kinney Brothers to promote Sweet Caporal Cigarettes 1890

Curator: I’m immediately struck by the boldness of this image. It's not a studio portrait in the way one might expect, it challenges traditional notions of female representation. Editor: You’re right, there's a performative aspect to this. We're looking at "Clara St. Maur, from the Actresses series (N245) issued by Kinney Brothers to promote Sweet Caporal Cigarettes", dating to around 1890. It’s a photograph, but rendered in such a way that it resembles a drawing, later printed. This piece invites a discussion about labor, gender, and commerce within the social constructs of the late 19th century. Curator: I agree, and the iconography used, while subtle, speaks volumes. The cigarette is a charged symbol of both freedom and vice, here intertwined with her identity as an actress. The gaze is assertive, but the context, as a commercial card, complicates that. Is she empowered, or exploited? Editor: The symbolism of the cigarette feels almost cliché today, but in its time, it signaled a transgression of gender roles. There’s a performative element of challenging those roles. However, let's not romanticize too much. As part of a series of actresses, she's part of a specific commodity, made to titillate male consumers. Curator: And what of the shadow play across her face and the angle of the photograph itself? I sense a desire to blur the lines, not only between the drawing and photography mediums, but also between public persona and private self. Her dress feels purposefully "unfinished," an intentional exposure meant for those purchasing cigarettes, as it plays with expectation. Editor: It really encapsulates how images, especially in early advertising, worked on multiple levels. There's a tension here—a negotiation between what's permissible to show and what remains veiled, even though her leg is exposed, and this dance of revealing and concealing reveals so much about the constraints of the time. Curator: Thinking about it, it's remarkable how this small card encapsulates so much cultural complexity regarding labor, sexuality, and female representation in such a constricted medium. Editor: Indeed. It underscores the value of visual culture in unpacking the social attitudes buried within even seemingly trivial objects.