Hattie Schell, from the Actresses series (N245) issued by Kinney Brothers to promote Sweet Caporal Cigarettes 1890

Curator: I am struck by the sepia tones that wash over this portrait, giving it an air of nostalgic gentility. Editor: This photograph, entitled "Hattie Schell, from the Actresses series," was created around 1890 by Kinney Brothers to promote Sweet Caporal Cigarettes. This portrait serves as a commercial advertisement, reflecting the complex interplay of celebrity culture and commodity capitalism during the late 19th century. Curator: I find the subdued palette rather appealing. What does it mean in relation to our perception of beauty and the feminine ideal at the time? Is there any relation to the aestheticism associated with Japonisme? Editor: Japonisme definitely had a profound influence during this era. The flattening of perspective, combined with the emphasis on beauty, aligns with Ukiyo-e traditions that became so sought after. And as for Hattie herself, she performs a carefully constructed ideal: the gaze averted just so, not confrontational but demure; the tightly fitted, bustled silhouette indicative of a specific class position. Curator: You read those symbols well! She becomes a signifier within this symbolic space. That guarded look almost makes you think she isn’t complicit with the exchange, so maybe that suggests she's selling aspiration more than herself. Editor: Exactly! She’s selling an aspirational image that the Sweet Caporal Cigarettes want to associate with. Consumption is a social practice, and she helps define who is consuming and how. By embodying beauty and class, she’s essentially selling an exclusive fantasy accessible with a purchase. It reveals some interesting gendered expectations, too; passive, refined, but with that glint of knowing, hinting at power through her image. Curator: And this is coming into the time when these sorts of trade cards become more wide-spread and accessible, yes? What could previously be afforded by the wealthy can now disseminate amongst a growing middle-class market? Editor: Precisely, transforming and commodifying high-art sensibilities into mass culture. So in terms of thinking about the agency of both Kinney Brothers and the figure of Hattie Schell, the whole campaign reveals much about who holds social, political, and economic sway. Curator: Thanks, this gave me a lot to consider about the photograph's social and economic backdrop. Editor: Indeed, it's a portrait deeply rooted in its time. The cigarette ads are fascinating intersections of performance, visual rhetoric, and marketing.