Snake Dance, from National Dances (N225, Type 1) issued by Kinney Bros.
Medium
Commercial color lithograph
Dimensions
Sheet: 2 3/4 × 1 1/2 in. (7 × 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
Burdick 218, N225.80
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the vibrant world of 19th-century American advertising with *Snake Dance*, a charming chromolithograph from the Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company's " Dances" series (N225, Type 1), issued in 1889 This petite print, measuring just 2¾ × 1½ inches, was designed as a collectible insert in cigarette packages, enticing smokers with exotic imagery of global and cultural dances. Here, silhouetted profiles of women in flowing attire weave gracefully with serpentine forms, evoking the rhythmic intensity of ritual performances—likely inspired by the famed Hopi Snake Dance of Native American puebl...
About the Artist
Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company · 1869–2011
**Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company (1869–2011)** Founded around 1869 by Francis Sherwood Kinney in New York City, the Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company quickly rose to prominence in the burgeoning American cigarette industry. Francis, a pioneering tobacco manufacturer, experimented with hand-rolled cigarettes using blends of Turkish and Virginia tobacco, scaling to mass production by employing Europ...