$35.00 SOLD
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Item Code: 1032-24
P.T. Barnum invented the “Circassian Lady”, or sometimes the “Circassian Beauty”, as a sideshow performer of a particular kind. The type included a number of key features: the woman must be pretty, or even beautiful, by Victorian standards; she would wear exotic clothing, generally more revealing than that worn by European and American woman of that era; she might display striking jewelry and other ornaments, such as strings of pearls or richly embroidered clothes. And the most telling feature of all: the big hair. This extraordinary hairdo was entirely Barnum’s invention, but it stuck as one of the defining markers of the “Circassian” woman, no matter what circus or sideshow put a Circassian performer on the stage: a huge mass of hair, washed in beer and teased to a frizzy cloud. These images traded in part on their titillating suggestion of white women sold into slavery. It is worth underlining that this costume and hair had nothing to do with how actual Circassian women looked.
The CDV of Aggie Zolutia displays the prevalent features of a “Circassian” portrait. Cards like this were sold at circuses and shows and by promoters, the profits shared by the performers and the show owners. She wears a jeweled crucifix and pearl-studded, low-cut dress, and the characteristic hairstyle is unmistakable.
The portrait represents the highest possible pitch of a fetishized whiteness: an albino Circassian. Aggie also wears a crucifix just above a low neckline, and she seems to relish the pose of this persona, playing it with conscious irony by mimicking the actual pose of the small bronze shepherdess on the table beside her.
Overall very good condition; light staining along edges of mount. Front photographer’s mark: Wilkes Photo. / Balto. Md. [ld]
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