Cigue (Hemlock) by J.J. Grandville

Cigue by J.J. Grandville

c.1847-1867

Hand-colored Engraving

This hand-colored engraving by J.J. Grandville (1803–1847) presents a whimsical yet darkly melancholic scene centered on the anthropomorphized hemlock plant (Conium maculatum), rendered as a fairy-like female figure. She stands in a dress composed of layered green leaves and a floral headdress, actively grinding hemlock in a pestle and mortar with deliberate, ritual-like motion. Nearby, a rabbit draped in a toga participates in a tragic tableau, drinking poison in an implied act of suicide, while a small dead frog lies at its side, intensifying the scene’s morbid undertone. Despite its fantastical decorative style, the composition carries a strong allegorical charge, blending botanical imagery, classical allusion, and narrative symbolism to create an unsettling vision in which nature, myth, and human tragedy are tightly interwoven.

Les Fleurs Animées belongs to Grandville’s most celebrated illustrated projects and reflects the broader nineteenth-century fascination with the personification of nature through visual culture. Grandville, a leading French caricaturist and book illustrator, was known for his imaginative hybridizations of human, animal, and botanical forms, which often carried satirical and allegorical undertones. In this series, each flower is transformed into a female personification whose costume and gestures are designed to reflect the perceived character and symbolic associations of the plant itself. The work is significant for its fusion of natural history illustration, decorative fantasy, and moralized allegory, and it anticipates later developments in surrealist visual language by collapsing distinctions between organic life, mythological reference, and human behavior into a single imaginative system.

Dimensions: H 10 ¼” x 7”W

Condition: Slight discoloration at edges consistent with age