Card Number 122, Miss Jarbeau, from the Actors and Actresses series (N145-2) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Cross Cut Cigarettes 1880s

Editor: So, this is “Card Number 122, Miss Jarbeau,” from the 1880s, created by W. Duke, Sons & Co. It’s a photograph, a print, used as a cigarette card. I'm immediately struck by the kind of staged, theatrical feel and the blatant commercial context combined with… well, it seems pretty racy for the time! What catches your eye when you look at it? Curator: Ah, yes, Miss Jarbeau! I think what’s truly captivating is how much she tells us about the era’s hidden desires. It’s titillating, isn't it? A naughty peek offered under the respectable guise of consumerism. And tell me, do you think the backdrop adds to this feeling, this carefully constructed world of slightly illicit pleasure? Editor: It totally does! It’s almost like a stage set, reinforcing that feeling of performance and constructed reality. The setting clashes interestingly with the reality of her just standing there in her underwear! Curator: Precisely. What strikes me, too, is how she embodies a certain... audacity. She’s not just posing, she’s almost challenging you with her gaze. Almost like saying "Yes, I’m here, I exist, what are *you* going to do about it?" It also seems pretty cool that the artist is embracing commercialism! A fascinating blurring of high and low art, right? Editor: Definitely! It is pretty amazing, actually. I’m seeing her now in a new light! It definitely makes me question the assumed social and artistic boundaries of that time period. Curator: Absolutely! Isn’t it interesting how something as seemingly simple as a cigarette card can unlock a whole world of social and artistic contradictions? Editor: It really is. It gives me a totally new perspective on this kind of advertising art! I’ll never look at a trading card the same way again.