Grève d' Azette, 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
63.350.216.187.40
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the whimsical world of 19th-century advertising with *Grève d'Azette*, a charming commercial color lithograph from the Fancy Bathers series (N), produced by William S. Kimball & Company 1889. This print (just 2 11/16 × 1 1/2 inches) captures elegant women in profile, likely enjoying a leisurely beach day at Grève d'Azette, a picturesque sandy shore in Jersey's Channel Islands. Part of a popular tobacco insert series, it reflects the era's fascination with seaside leisure and idealized feminine beauty, rendered in vibrant chromolithography—a technique that brought affordable, colorful...
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...