Wild Rose: Poetry, from the series Floral Beauties and Language of Flowers (N75) for Duke brand cigarettes 1892

Curator: Here we have "Wild Rose: Poetry," a piece from the "Floral Beauties and Language of Flowers" series made for Duke brand cigarettes around 1892. Editor: It’s immediately striking how the Art Nouveau style wraps the woman's portrait in this sort of delicate, almost dreamlike visual space. The pale colors… the stippling texture…there's something both precious and ephemeral about it. Curator: These cards were really popular premiums at the time, collectible items that played on the Victorian fascination with floriography, assigning symbolic meanings to flowers. So, the wild rose? It traditionally represented poetry, but also simplicity and beauty. Editor: Yes, that connection between flower and concept is precisely what I was grasping for, conceptually beautiful. And visually too; her eyes are averted. She’s surrounded but self-contained, it seems a delicate contemplation on womanhood. The Art Nouveau influence, you know, its embrace of the decorative arts, reinforces that. Curator: Absolutely, and note that the series, produced by the American Tobacco Company, taps into cultural ideas of beauty, refinement, and even consumerism, by associating their product with such images and meanings. The woman’s expression appears calm and lovely. The artist suggests some association of roses and romance and tobacco. Editor: Which speaks to the duality, doesn't it? Roses evoke passion and delicacy. Tobacco? Pleasure tinged with danger, indulgence but that stippled visual texture does seem to hint on impermanence, fragility, perhaps an indication that the promise of poetry is elusive? Curator: Well, this was popular imagery at that period; artists made deliberate aesthetic and iconological decisions, though. We might view it cynically today as corporate strategy. But I imagine it was also simply about accessible art bringing fleeting beauty to daily life, a reminder of poetry. Editor: It all circles back to those roses. So deliberately composed, like a thought gently considered, with the figure's form at the apex! Thinking about design this way makes you appreciate that these cigarette cards were pocket-sized aesthetic considerations in times so unlike today. Curator: Considering how symbols and artwork intertwine offers deeper insights into human culture and desires, doesn’t it? It reminds me to stay grounded, while finding joy in unexpected ways, maybe a lovely little token to carry!