Mary Delany (1770-1788) was an English artist who made “paper-mosaicks,” intricate paper collages of flowers, that are now in the British Museum. Her great-great-great niece wrote about her method:
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…
When my mother told me she was reading The Paper Garden, Molly Peacock’s book about Delany, I found some of the mosaicks online and was quite amazed—they look more like paintings than collages or paper cutouts. So I got the book from the library to find out more.
First off, the book is beautifully produced. It’s approx. 8″ x 5″, narrower than most books, with a nice feel in the hands, and the pages are thick high quality stock. The page layout itself is very pleasing, with the page numbers in the wide outside margin about 2″ from the bottom of the page. The reproductions of Delany’s mosaicks are lovely. Clearly a lot of care was taken with the book design. I wish I could say as much for the writing. Delany’s life is compelling; she was an avid correspondent so there’s lots of information about her life, opinions and avocation. Peacock also sets the stage well, giving lots of details about 18th century life for the well-do-to in Britain. However she not only interjects her own story, comparing her life to Delany’s, but her use of 21st century slang seems out of place and jarring. I quickly figured out to skip the parts about the author and concentrate on Delany. It might be that the relative’s book quoted above (Mrs. Delany: Her Life and Flowers) would be a better read.
Below are several of Delany’s flower portraits.
I just ordered it from the library. WOW! Thank you so much for posting about her work!
Rather belated here–somehow, I missed this when you originally posted it. I’ve been a huge admirer of the work of Mrs. Delany for a long time, and actually got to study the originals some years ago (a life-altering experience!). I just want to say that I do recommend Ruth Hayden’s book (Mrs Delany: Her Life and Her Flowers), if you haven’t gotten it already and if you would like a more historical account. Also, the exhibition companion from 2009, Mrs Delany and Her Circle, is, alas, rather expensive, but it’s also full of interesting essays and fabulous eye candy. One of my personal grumbles is that Mary Delany is still treated, in art history terms, as a sort of quaint old lady aristocrat dabbler who made little flower cut-outs, but Picasso and Braque get the credit for “inventing” collage? It’s obscene.