Les Fleurs Animées, Title Page 1847

Editor: This is the title page to *Les Fleurs Animées*, or *Animated Flowers*, by J.J. Grandville, dating to 1847. It's a watercolor and print piece held here at the Met. It strikes me as whimsical, yet also quite strange with its merging of human and botanical forms. What do you see in this piece, especially given the title? Curator: The "animated flowers" evoke a deeper conversation about transformation and the interconnectedness of nature and humanity. It reflects the Romantic era's fascination with the symbolic language of flowers and their allegorical potential, like societal or political commentaries disguised in the visual. What do the flowers suggest to you in the way they take on human characteristics? Editor: I hadn’t thought of it that way. Now that you mention it, I guess each flower’s expression and pose, how they’re personified, might mean something beyond just simple beauty. Is Grandville using them to represent specific types of people or ideas? Curator: Exactly! And it asks us to consider: what does it mean to imbue these natural forms with human traits, like vanity or grace or intelligence? How do we decode what each flower represents based on the social cues and symbols woven into the composition? Is the author merely amusing, or deeply political, too? Editor: So, reading these symbols unlocks more layers. I am so in love with Romanticism and Symbolism right now. What a clever way to use imagery to say so much more than words could! Curator: The Victorians used what was known as the Language of Flowers and the author would likely have known its influence. It goes to show how deeply ingrained our cultural memories are and how artists throughout history use visual language to subtly converse with us across time. Editor: That is great insight. Thanks! I see this piece so differently now.