Mary Delany ( Granville; 14 May 1700 – 15 April 1788) was an English artist, letter-writer, and
bluestocking, known for her "paper-mosaicks" and botanic drawing, needlework and her lively correspondence.
Early life
Mary Delany was born at
Coulston
Coulston (until 1934 called East Coulston) is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, five miles northeast of the town of Westbury, just north of the B3098 road. The village lies under the north slope of Salisbury Plain and the parish ...
,
Wiltshire
Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershir ...
,
the daughter of Colonel Bernard Granville by his marriage to Mary Westcombe, loyal
Tory
A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. The ...
supporters of the
Stuart Crown. She was a niece of
George Granville, 1st Baron Lansdowne, her father's brother.
Mary had one older brother, Bernard (1699), known as Bunny; a younger brother Bevil, born between 1702 and 1706; and a sister, Anne (1707) who married John Dewes (D'Ewes).
When Mary was young, her parents moved the family to London, and she attended a school taught by a French refugee, Mademoiselle Puelle. Mary came into close contact with the Court when she was sent to live with her aunt, Lady Stanley, who was childless – the intention being that she would eventually become a
Maid of Honour
A maid of honour is a junior attendant of a queen in royal households. The position was and is junior to the lady-in-waiting. The equivalent title and office has historically been used in most European royal courts.
Role
Traditionally, a queen ...
.
[Hayden, 1980.]
While living with Lady Stanley, Mary became learned in "English, French, history, music, needlework and dancing...".
She came into contact with
Handel
George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel (; baptised , ; 23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-British Baroque composer well known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi, and organ concertos. Handel received his train ...
while at the household, listening to music he had composed; for the rest of her life she was a close personal friend and loyal supporter of the composer. Mary's hopes to become a
lady in waiting
A lady-in-waiting or court lady is a female personal assistant at a court, attending on a royal woman or a high-ranking noblewoman. Historically, in Europe, a lady-in-waiting was often a noblewoman but of lower rank than the woman to whom ...
were dashed by
Queen Anne's death in 1714, which led to a change in power, and a
Hanoverian
The adjective Hanoverian is used to describe:
* British monarchs or supporters of the House of Hanover, the dynasty which ruled the United Kingdom from 1714 to 1901
* things relating to;
** Electorate of Hanover
** Kingdom of Hanover
** Province o ...
on the throne, supported by the
Whigs. The Granvilles moved to a manor at
Buckland in Gloucestershire, where they became isolated from English society. However, Mary was able to continue her education and her pursuit of paper cutting, which had developed at an early age.
Near the end of 1717 Mary was invited to stay with her uncle,
Lord Lansdowne, in Wiltshire. She was introduced to
Alexander Pendarves
Alexander Pendarves, MP (baptised 11 November 1662 – 13 March 1725) was a Cornish landowner and Tory politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1689 and 1725.
Early life
Pendarves, of Roscrow, Cornwall, United Kingdom was the son o ...
during this stay, and it soon became clear that her family had an interest in a marriage between the two. Pendarves was Member of Parliament for
Launceston and 60 years old, while Mary was 17.
In February 1718 she was unhappily married to him, a marriage brought on by her parents' financial dependence on Lord Lansdowne, and Lord Lansdowne's hope to gain political influence.
Married life
The Pendarveses left for
Roscrow Castle near
Falmouth in west
Cornwall
Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlan ...
in April; once settled, Mrs Pendarves was able to enjoy the views that Roscrow offered, and was able to spend time riding. Mr Pendarves's
gout
Gout ( ) is a form of inflammatory arthritis characterized by recurrent attacks of a red, tender, hot and swollen joint, caused by deposition of monosodium urate monohydrate crystals. Pain typically comes on rapidly, reaching maximal intens ...
grew worse as the year progressed, and in the second year of their marriage, Mrs Pendarves was forced to nurse her ailing husband, and pass her time sewing and painting flowers.
In 1721, the two took a house in London and there, though Mr Pendarves began to drink excessively, Mrs Pendarves was reunited with many of her old friends. In 1725, Mr Pendarves died suddenly in his sleep.
He had not altered his will after his marriage, and so Mrs Pendarves did not inherit what remained of his estate. "Mr. Pendarves, concerned with the bottle that allowed him to forget the loss of part of his fortune, had had no time to consider settling the rest of it on his wife."
Despite her lack of resources, widowhood provided new opportunities for Mrs Pendarves. Widows, unlike unmarried women, were able to move 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. Perhaps because of her own unhappy marriage, she was not satisfied with the options available to women in the 18th century. She wrote, Mrs Pendarves was a very perceptive woman, "She judged everything and everybody for herself; and, while ridiculing all empty-headed or vain insipidity, whether fashionable or eccentric, was always ready to applaud the unusual, if sincere and worthy. She was eager in the acquisition of knowledge of all kinds to the end of her life..."
Because she had no home of her own, after her first husband's death Mrs Pendarves spent time living with various relatives and friends. A wealthy friend, the
Duchess of Portland
The Duchess of Portland refers to the wife or widow of a Duke of Portland, a former title in the peerage of Great Britain. The title was created in 1716 but became extinct in 1990 upon the death of the ninth Duke.
Duchesses of Portland
* Margaret ...
, included Mary in her artistic and scientific "Hive" where she met
Joseph Banks, the
botanist, and she visited his home to see samples and drawings from his travels with
Captain Cook. She bred plants, drew and painted with needlework these exotic flora.
To begin with, she lived with her aunt and uncle Stanley, and after her aunt's death, she spent time in Ireland with the family of her friend Mrs Donellan. In Ireland, Mrs Pendarves made the acquaintance of
Dr Patrick Delany, an Irish clergyman who was already married to a rich widow, Margaret Tenison. It was not until 1743, two years after the death of his first wife, that on a trip to London Dr Delany proposed to Mrs Pendarves, much to the dismay of her family. They were married in June 1743.
The Delanys passed a year in London before moving to
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...
, where Dr Delany had a home. They also rented
Mount Panther in
County Down
County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 531,665. It borders County Antrim to th ...
and during their first year in the house Patrick was made
Dean of Down. Both husband and wife were very interested in botany and gardening: After twenty-five years of marriage, most of it spent in Ireland, Dr Delany died in Bath, England, on 6 May 1768 at the age of eighty-four, and Mrs Delany, now sixty-eight, found herself again a widow.
Later life
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 an interest in botany, often going out to look for specific specimens. It was during her frequent stays at Bulstrode that Mary became acquainted with two well-known botanists of the time:
Joseph Banks and
Daniel Solander
Daniel Carlsson Solander or Daniel Charles Solander (19 February 1733 – 13 May 1782) was a Swedish naturalist and an apostle of Carl Linnaeus.
Solander was the first university-educated scientist to set foot on Australian soil.
Biography
S ...
. This contact with the botanists encouraged Mary's interest in botany and also developed the knowledge on which many of her flower paper-cuttings are based.
Mary Delany died on 15 April 1788. There is a memorial to her in
St James's Church, Piccadilly
St James's Church, Piccadilly, also known as St James's Church, Westminster, and St James-in-the-Fields, is an Anglican church on Piccadilly in the centre of London, United Kingdom. The church was designed and built by Sir Christopher Wren.
Th ...
.
Career as an artist
Mary Delany had always been an artist, but during her marriage to Dr Delany she had the time to hone her skills. She was also a gardener, and did needlework, drawing, and painting; but was best known for her paper-cutting:
"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". She struck up a friendship with Letitia Bushe
Letitia Bushe (1705/1710 – 17 November 1757) was an Irish watercolourist and miniaturist.
Life
Letitia Bushe was born around 1705 or 1710 in Dangan, County Kilkenny. She was the daughter of Arthur Bushe, a secretary to the commissioners of ...
, a watercolourist and miniaturist, with whom she embarked on a number of artistic projects.
In 1771, a widow in her early 70s, Mary began on
decoupage, a fashion with ladies of the court. Her works were detailed and botanically accurate depictions of plants, using
tissue paper
Tissue paper or simply tissue is a lightweight paper or, light crêpe paper. Tissue can be made from recycled paper pulp on a paper machine.
Tissue paper is very versatile, and different kinds of tissue are made to best serve these purposes, whi ...
and hand colouration. She created 985 of these works, calling them her "Paper Mosaiks ", from the age of 71 to 88, when her eyesight failed her.
"With the plant specimen set before her she cut minute particles of coloured 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. It is thought she first dissected each plant so that she might examine it carefully for accurate portrayal..."
Mary became well known, and donors began to send her flowers to cut. Her work can be seen in the
Enlightenment Gallery at the
British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docume ...
. Upon her death, "The ten volumes of Mrs. Delany's ''Flora Delanica'' were inherited by Lady Llanover, the daughter of Georgina Mary Ann Port. Lady Llanover, who died in 1896 at the age of ninety-four, bequeathed these volumes to the British Museum..."
When her patroness, the Dowager Duchess, died,
King George III
George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great B ...
and
Queen Charlotte gave her a small house at
Windsor and a pension of £300 a year. Mrs. Delany had become familiar with Queen Charlotte while living in the house at Windsor, becoming an important part of the inner circle of the court,
teaching the young children about plants and sewing skills. The King and Queen were great supporters; she was given a locket of the queen's hair and a portrait of Delany was arranged by the king, then hung in the queen's bedchamber;
they said of her paper-cutting, to have "...always desired that any curious or beautiful plants should be transmitted to Mrs. Delany when in blossom."
Frances Burney
Frances Burney (13 June 1752 – 6 January 1840), also known as Fanny Burney and later Madame d'Arblay, was an English satirical novelist, diarist and playwright. In 1786–1790 she held the post as "Keeper of the Robes" to Charlotte of Mecklen ...
(Madame D'Arblay) was introduced to her in 1783, and frequently visited her at her London home and at Windsor, and owed to her friendship her court appointment.
She had known many of the luminaries of her day, had corresponded with
Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whigs, then for the Tories), poet, and Anglican cleric who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, ...
,
Sir Joseph Banks, and Young, and left a detailed picture of polite English society of the 18th century in her six volumes of ''Autobiography and Letters'' (ed.
Lady Llanover
Augusta Hall, Baroness Llanover (21 March 1802 – 17 January 1896), born Augusta Waddington, was a Welsh heiress, best known as a patron of the Welsh arts.
Early life
She was born on 21 March 1802, near Abergavenny, the youngest daughter of B ...
, 1861–1862).
Burke calls her "a real fine lady, the model of an accomplished woman of former times".
The
Ulster Museum in Belfast holds an embroidered bedcover by Mrs Delany, one of the few complete pieces of embroidery made by her. Other pieces are described in letters, including pieces sewn with violets, auriculas, geraniums , poppies, Madonna lilies. Her own clothes were embroidered richly, including a ballgown probably designed for the birthday of Frederick, Prince of Wales, in 1751 with pinks, lily of the valley, winter jasmine, scent peas, love-in-a-mist, anemones, tulips, bluebells and forget-me-nots in accurate anatomical detail.
In 1980, a descendant of Delany's sister Anne, Ruth Hayden, published a book on Delany's work: ''Mrs. Delany and Her Flower Collages'', which was reissued in 2000 as ''Mrs. Delany: Her Life and Her Flowers'' (British Museum Press). A biography of Delany by Clarissa Campbell Orr was published in 2019.
In the 1980s, Irish fashion designer
Sybil Connolly created a range of tableware for
Tiffany & Co
Tiffany & Co. (colloquially known as Tiffany's) is a high-end luxury jewelry and specialty retailer, headquartered on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. It sells jewelry, sterling silver, porcelain, crystal, stationery, fragrances, water bottles, wat ...
. inspired by Mrs Delany's floral collages.
Legacy
In 2022 the 'Mortimer Sackler' rose was renamed 'Mary Delany' by David Austin Roses in honor of the artist. The registration name of the rose is 'Ausorts'.
Gallery
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Mary Delany04.jpg
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References
*
Bibliography
* Blain, Virginia, et al. (Eds). "Delany, Mary." ''The Feminist Companion to Literature in English'' (New Haven and London: Yale UP, 1990) 278–79.
* Campbell Orr, Clarissa. ''Mrs Delany: a Life'' (Yale, 2019).
* Delany, Mary (Granville) & Lady Llanover (Ed.). ''The autobiography and correspondence of Mary Granville, Mrs. Delany : with interesting reminiscences of King George the third and Queen Charlotte''
Volume 1Volume 2Volume 3(London: R. Bentley, 1861).
* Delany, Mary
''The Autobiography and Correspondence of Mrs. Delany.''Publication date 1879
*
Dewes, Simon. ''Mrs. Delany'' (London: Rich & Cowan, Ltd, 1989).
* Hayden, Ruth. ''Mrs Delany: her life and her flowers'' (London: British Museum Pubs. Ltd., 1980).
* Kerhervé, Alain. (Ed). ''Mary Delany (1700-1788) and the Court of King George III'', vol. 4 of Michael Kassler (ed.), ''Memoirs of the Court of George III.'' London, Pickering & Chatto, 2015.
* Kerhervé, Alain. ''Une épistolière anglaise du XVIIIe siècle : Mary Delany (1700–1788).'' Éditions L'Harmattan, 2004. 500 p.
* Kerhervé, Alain. (Ed). ''Polite Letters: The Correspondence of Mary Delany (1700–1788) and Francis North, Lord Guilford (1704–1790).'' Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009. 150 p.
* Paston, George.
Mrs. Delany (Mary Granville): a memoir, 1700–1788' (London: Grant Richards, 1900).
* Vulliamy, C. E. ''Aspasia: The Life and Letters of Mary Granville, Mrs Delany'' (London: J. and J. Gray. 1935).
* Laird, Mark and Weisberg-Roberts, Alicia (Ed.). ''Mrs. Delany & Her Circle'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009).
* Peacock, Molly. ''The Paper Garden: An Artist (Begins Her Life's Work) at 72''. New York, NY ; Berlin
.a.: Bloomsbury, 2011,
* Wilson, Rachel, ''Elite Women in Ascendancy Ireland, 1690-1745: Imitation and Innovation'' (Boydell and Brewer, Woodbridge, 2015).
External links
*
*
Example of Mary's paper mosaic(British Museum)
''The Paper Garden: Mrs. Delany Begins Her Life's Work at 72'' by Molly PeacockRecord for ''Mary Granville Delany'' at ''www.findagrave.com''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Delany, Mary
English non-fiction writers
English memoirists
English letter writers
Women letter writers
People from Wiltshire
English women non-fiction writers
18th-century British women writers
18th-century British writers
1700 births
1788 deaths
Paper artists
English artists
British women artists
Botanical illustrators
British women memoirists
18th-century English women
18th-century English people