Petita, from the Ballet Queens series (N182) issued by Wm. S. Kimball & Co.

Art Historical Context

Step into the glittering world of 19th-century ballet with *Petita, from the Ballet Queens series (N182)*, a charming commercial color lithograph produced by Wm. S. Kimball & Co. in 1889. This petite print, measuring just 2¾ × 1½ inches, captures the grace of its titular dancer amid a vogue for ballerinas as cultural icons. Issued as part of a collectible series tucked into cigarette packs, it reflects the era's booming tobacco trade, where companies like Kimball enticed smokers—and avid collectors—with vibrant ephemera celebrating feminine elegance and performance art. Chromolithography, the innovative color printing technique used here, brought affordable brilliance to mass-produced images, layering up to 30 lithographic stones for rich hues and fine details. Ballet stars like Petita embodied the Romantic era's ideal of ethereal beauty, their portraits fueling a public obsession with dance luminaries from Europe's grand opera houses. Housed in The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Jefferson R. Burdick Collection, this card highlights how everyday commerce intersected with high art, preserving snapshots of Gilded Age leisure and celebrity culture for posterity.

About the Artist

William S. Kimball & Company · 1850–1950

**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...