Marigold: Disdain, from the series Floral Beauties and Language of Flowers (N75) for Duke brand cigarettes

Art Historical Context

Step into the vibrant world of 1890s advertising with *Marigold: Dis*, a petite chromolithograph from the *Floral Beauties and Language of Flowers* (N75), produced by the Donaldson Brothers for the American Tobacco Company's Duke cigarettes. Created in 1892, this tiny card—measuring just 2¾ × 1½ inches—was designed as collectible ephemera, into cigarette packs to entice smokers and spark a collecting craze among Victorians. Its delicate imagery blends a graceful female figure with marigold blooms, embodying the flower’s symbolic "disdain" in the era’s floriography, where plants whispered emotions like love, jealousy, or scorn. Chromolithography, the medium here, revolutionized commercial printing by layering vibrant colors through multiple stone plates, making high-quality illustrations affordable for mass distribution. This technique captured the lush yellows and greens of marigolds with stunning realism, personifying floral beauty through an elegant woman amid petals—a nod to Art Nouveau’s emerging floral motifs and the period’s romanticized view of nature. Part of The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Jefferson R. Burdick Collection, this card highlights tobacco marketing’s clever fusion of art, symbolism, and commerce. In an age before digital ads, such ephemera turned everyday purchases into treasures, reflecting America’s booming consumer culture and the enduring allure of flowers as emotional messengers.

About the Artist

Donaldson Brothers|American Tobacco Company (American| ) · 1850 | –1870 |

American, New York|