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Mary Delany was famous for her highly accurate and beautiful botanical illustrations. Unlike most botanical illustrations, these are not paintings, but paper collages created from hundreds of tiny pieces of cut paper.

Mary Delany was famous for her highly accurate and beautiful botanical illustrations. Unlike most botanical illustrations, these are not paintings, but paper collages created from hundreds of tiny pieces of cut paper.

 MARY GRANVILLE PENDARVES DELANY

Mary Granville Pendarves Delany, 1700 –1788, was born at Coulston, England. She was one of 4 children of Colonel Bernard Granville and Mary Westcombe Granville. Both of her parents were Tory supporters of the Stuart Crown.  When Mary was young, her parents moved the family to London.  Mary became a regular visitor to the Court when she was sent to live with her aunt, Lady Stanley, who was childless.  While living with Lady Stanley, Mary was educated in English, French, history, music, needlework and dancing. The plan for Mary's to become a lady in waiting were thwarted when Queen Anne died 1714.  The Granvilles moved to Gloucestershire, where they were very isolated from English society. Mary was able to concentrate and continue her education.

Magnolia Blossom and Leaves

Near the end of 1717, Mary was invited to stay with her uncle, Lord Lansdowne, in Wiltshire. She was introduced to Alexander Pendarves a man that her family hoped would marry her.  Pendarves who was a Member of Parliament was 60 years old and Mary was 17 when the two were married in 1718.

The Pendarveses lived in Roscrow Castle in Cornwall until 1921 when her husband’s ill health caused the couple to return to London.  Mary became the primary caregiver of her husband and although it was a busy time as it was also a nice for Mary to be reunited with family and friends. In 1724, Mr. Pendarves died in his sleep, leaving his young wife a widow at the age of 23.

Mary Granville Pendarves

Mr. Pendarves had not altered his will after his marriage, and so Mrs. Pendarves did not inherit what remained of his estate. Despite her lack of resources, widowhood provided new opportunities for Mrs. Pendarves. Widows, unlike unmarried women, were able to move more freely in society, and for the first time in her life, Mrs. Pendarves was able to pursue her own interests without the oversight of any man. Because she had no home of her own Mrs. Pendarves spent time living with various relatives and friends. She spent time in Ireland with her friend Mrs. Donnelly and while there Mrs. Pendarves made the acquaintance of Patrick Delany, an Irish clergyman who was already married. In 1743 Patrick Delany married Mrs. Pendarves.

The Delany’s passed a year in London before moving to Dublin, where Patrick Delany had a home. Both husband and wife were very interested in botany and gardening: They shared a mutual pleasure in their garden at Delville near Dublin.  Patrick Delany supported and encouraged Mary in her gardening, painting, shell-work and needlework much of which was inspired by flowers and their garden.

Tiger Lily

In 1768, after twenty-five years of marriage, and at the age of 84, Patrick Delany died. So once again, at the age of 68, Mary Delany found herself a widow. As a widow, Mary Delany spent even more of her time at Bulstrode, the home of her close friend, Margaret Bentinck, Dowager Duchess of Portland. The two shared a love of botany, often going out to look for specific specimens. It was during her frequent stays at Bulstrode with the Duchess that Mary became acquainted with two well-known botanists of the time Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander. This contact with the botanists only continued Mary’s education and her interest in botany.

Mary Delany was a gifted and talented artist.  The fact that she actually started creating her paper mosaics when she was in her seventies show what an extrodinarily gifted artist she was.

Passion Flower

Mary Delany had always loved the arts. During her marriage to Dr. Delany she had the time to hone her skills.  She was an avid gardener, and was also good at needlework, drawing, painting, however, she was best known for her paper-cutting skills.  "For these 'mosaicks' are coloured paper representing not only conspicuous details but also contrasting colours or shades of the same colour so that every effect of light is caught” From the book Mrs Delany: her life and her flowers by Ruth Hayden (London: British Museum Pubs. Ltd., 1980.

She teamed up with a friend who was a watercolourist and miniaturist, with whom she embarked on a number of artistic projects.

Fritilaria Flower

In 1771, when Mary was in her early 70s and as a way of dealing with her grief, Mary began to create cut out paper artworks (decoupage) as was the fashion for ladies of the court. Her works were exceptionally detailed and botanically accurate depictions of plants. She used tissue paper and hand colouration to produce these pieces. She created 1,700 of these works, calling them her "Paper Mosaiks", from the age of 71 to 88. From the book Mrs Delany: her life and her flowers by Ruth Hayden (London: British Museum Pubs. Ltd., 1980.

Her process was to set the plant in front of her and cut minute particles of colored paper to represent the petals, stamens, calyx, leaves, veins, stalk and other parts of the plant, and, using lighter and darker paper to form the shading, she stuck them on a black background. By placing one piece of paper upon another she sometimes built up several layers and in a complete picture there might be hundreds of pieces to form one plant. Mary took great care to make sure that each of her flowers were correct, in number of stamens and petals. She also became so well known that many donors began to send her flowers to create Mosaics from. Today, her mosaics can still be seen at the British Museum in the Enlightenment Gallery.

Water Lily

 “Mary Granville, then Pendarves, then Delany was a complicated character in a multi-leveled, socially ornate world. But if a role model in her seventies isn't layered with contradictions – as we all come to be – then what good is she? Why bother to cut the silhouette of another's existence and place it against our own if it isn't as incongruous, ambiguous, inconsistent, and paradoxical as our own lives are?

A few of the papers she used — all of the papers in the eighteenth century were handmade — in fact were wallpapers, but mostly she painted large sheets of rag paper with watercolor, let them dry, then cut from them the hundreds of pieces she needed to reproduce — well, to re-evoke might be a better word — the flower she was portraying. There is no reproduced hue that matches the thrill of color in nature, yet Mrs. D. went after the original kick of natural color, and she did it like a painter. If you look at photographic reproductions of her work in a book like this, you may swear to yourself that her flowers are painted. But if you go to the British Museum Web site, zoom in on the image, then zoom in again and again, at last you will see the complicated overlapping layers of cut paper that this book shows in enlargements of details.” From the book The Paper Garden: An Artist (begins Her Life's Work) at 72.by Molly Peacock, New York, NY ; Berlin Bloomsbury, 2011

 We are so excited to introduce to you the counted cross stitch and counted needlepoint charts inspired by Mary Delany's magnificent work!

For further reading:

1.) Mrs Delany: her life and her flowers by Ruth Hayden (London: British Museum Pubs. Ltd., 1980

2.) The Paper Garden: An Artist (begins Her Life's Work) at 72.by Molly Peacock, New York, NY ; Berlin Bloomsbury, 2011

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