Ephitimios Freres (Port Said), ‘Cléopatre’ ca.1900, photographed and coloured post card, no 97.
Béhar et fils, ‘Cléopatre mordue par le Serpent’ ca.1900, photographed postcard no 8 from the series ‘Egypt’
‘People no longer speak to each other when sitting together in public spaces’, journalist G.R. Simms expresses his concern of the new behavior of his contemporaries: ‘people are writing messages monotonously.’ The medium was, however, not an I-phone or tablet; on the seat beside them were lying ‘little piles of picture postcards.’ In the summer of 1900, writing small messages on post cards with exotic pictures was the latest craze.
Picture postcards became very popular from the 1870s and soon turned into serious collector’s items. Special albums were developed to assemble specific series. The greetings were preferably sent from far destinies, so the relation to tourism soon occurred, Egypt was a beloved place.
Among popular themes from Egypt were portraits of women: ‘authentic locals’ (read: western models or local prostitutes) wearing the veil, but even more alluring was the parade of belly dancers. Photos developed for the tourist market and as an authentic souvenir even specific studios were equipped for staged photography. These two post cards are examples of this phenomenon, be it that the model does not play the contemporain exotic woman, but the historical figure of Cleopatra. We see two different episodes, obviously in a sequence of shots.
The coloured version (probably added by the printer) shows the pharaonic beauty on her lavish throne, be it that she is more oriental dressed and sitting/hanging on panther skins. The landscape behind her is the typical studio prop of a blurry painted screen forming the background.
The black and white photo shows the same personage/ model/ actress a moment later: now she died. The title explains here she is leathally bitten by the snake, depicted with her hand dramatically on her (dressed) breast.
The single photo shoot is clear, yet there are two different publishers claiming the post card. Probably the pictures were available in Port Said, and when the Ephtimios Freres laid hands on the original sepia photo, they decided to print it as a hyper modern, colored souvernir recalling past times.