Cherbourg, from the Fancy Bathers series (N187) issued by Wm. S. Kimball & Co.
Medium
Commercial color lithograph
Dimensions
Sheet: 2 11/16 × 1 1/2 in. (6.9 × 3.8 cm)
Classification
Prints|Ephemera
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Jefferson R. Burdick Collection, Gift of Jefferson R. Burdick
Accession Number
63.350.216.187.44
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the vibrant world of late 19th-century advertising *Cherbourg, from the Fancy Bathers series (N)*, a charming commercial color lithograph produced by William S. Kimball & Company in 1889. This print (just 2 11/16 × 1 1/2 inches) was designed as a collectible insert for cigarette packs part of a popular series featuring elegantly attired women at seaside resorts. Kimball, a Rochester-based tobacco firm, capitalized on the era's seaside leisure craze, evoking glamorous European spots like Cherbourg, France, through idealized female figures in fashionable bathing costumes. Chromolithog...
About the Artist
William S. Kimball & Company
**William S. Kimball & Company**, a pioneering American tobacco manufacturer, was established in 1846 in Rochester, New York, by William S. Kimball and James C. Hart. The firm quickly grew into one of the city's largest employers, particularly of women, producing popular brands like Peerless chewing tobacco, Rigatta and Fireside smoking tobacco, and Vanity Fair cigarettes. Under Kimball's leadersh...