Independence Day, Peru, from the Holidays series (N80) for Duke brand cigarettes 1890

Curator: My first thought: she looks…transcendental, like music itself made visible. The color palette is really ethereal. Editor: We're looking at a lithograph titled "Independence Day, Peru" made around 1890 for W. Duke, Sons & Co., as part of their Holidays series for Duke brand cigarettes. Now, it's held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The visual structure blends portraiture with elements of Romanticism and Orientalism. Tell me more about that "transcendental" feel. Curator: Well, beyond the soft colors, it's how she’s rendered almost like a goddess, laurel wreath, flowing garments…she’s idealized. But what strikes me is her gaze. There's this calm… maybe it's the association with music from the harp, like a gentle dream being woven. The textures in the dress give this sheen quality like pearlescence. Editor: It’s fascinating how the artist uses line and color to construct an idealized vision of Peru's Independence Day. If you follow the curves from the harp to the figure, the lines create a visual rhythm that conducts your eye, literally harmonizing with her posture. Note the Peruvian coat-of-arms, that tiny emblem anchored in the corner, which attempts to root this image to national pride. Curator: Do you think that image gives the actual date or purpose away in contrast to everything else going on, what I like to call smoke and mirrors? Editor: Maybe… although I also believe the formal elements reflect more than an idealized vision. It may mirror aspirations embedded in Peru’s quest for autonomy during the nineteenth century; aspirations that may or may not come into fruition. Curator: And the idea it would be on a cigarette pack! Today it's a statement, almost a conversation about consumption. Editor: Indeed. The semiotics create this rich tension that's simultaneously seductive, representative of culture, and commercial. Curator: Thank you, this makes a note of reality vs imagination. Editor: A most interesting synthesis on the interplay of form, aspiration, and reality. Thank you for joining me.