Card Number 40, Sommerville, from the Actors and Actresses series (N145-2) issued by Duke Sons & Co. to promote Cross Cut Cigarettes 1880s

Editor: Here we have "Card Number 40, Sommerville" from the Actors and Actresses series, dating back to the 1880s. It's a promotional print for Cross Cut Cigarettes by W. Duke, Sons & Co., and is currently at The Met. I'm struck by its overt sensuality – and the unapologetic way it uses a woman’s image to sell tobacco. It’s almost jarring for its time, or maybe just…period? What catches your eye? Curator: Oh, "jarring" is spot on! But perhaps not only for the reasons you think. What if I told you that the shock isn't merely about selling smokes with suggestive poses? This was the Victorian era. Image was carefully controlled, yet burlesque, music hall, and theatre blossomed precisely *because* of that. So think less “unapologetic sensuality” and perhaps more, what's behind the artifice? Why *this* woman and what does she communicate? Is she coy or assertive? A daydream or a declaration? Editor: I suppose it’s that very “is she coy or assertive?” ambiguity that I find so compelling, and so…period. I mean, on the one hand, the image suggests that, but on the other, she's objectified by being used as advertising. Curator: Ah, but here’s where things get tricky, like peeling back the layers of an onion – and crying a little in the process, probably! Is it empowerment in a restrictive era, a cage gilded with the spotlight, or both? Advertising reflected – and still reflects, lets face it! – society's complex desires and contradictions. This "Sommerville," whoever she was, is caught in that very sticky web. She embodies those paradoxes. Now tell me: What does she *mean* in the context of a cigarette card versus on a stage? Editor: That… that's a whole new can of worms. So, it’s less about simple objectification, and more about... layers upon layers of social and historical meaning condensed into a tiny card. Curator: Precisely! And the best art always sparks those "wormy" questions, right? Especially when packaged and sold along with nicotine. I'd say you earned a cigarette…but I wouldn’t recommend taking up smoking.