Marigolds (The Bower Maiden, Fleur-de-Marie)

Marigolds at Nottingham Castle, also known as The Bower Maiden or Fleur-de-Marie, is a mid-sized oil of 1874 that belongs to Rossetti's mature phase of flower-identified female figures. Associating a female subject with a specific flower — its color, perfume, and symbolic meanings — was a characteristic device of Rossetti's later work, linking his imagery to the Victorian language of flowers while creating a distinctive visual type for each painting. Marigolds carry associations of sunlight, warmth, and the passing of time, and Rossetti exploits these in the painting's warm golden-orange coloristic key. The alternative titles suggest some uncertainty about the figure's specific identity, but within Rossetti's work, named or unnamed, these flower-women are variations on a consistent symbolic type: female beauty as natural abundance, as seasonal passage, as aesthetic experience.

The warm orange-gold of the marigolds saturates the entire coloristic field, creating a warm atmosphere against which the figure's face and hair are set. Flower rendering in Rossetti requires attention to the specific botanical character of the chosen plant alongside its decorative function.