From Female Accomplishment To Botanical Science: Mary Delany's “Paper Mosaicks”

Abstract Mary Delany (1700–1788, nee Granville, I voto Pendarves) was an English gentlewoman of many talents. She wrote and illustrated a novella; she designed gardens, furniture and textiles; she left an impressive body of work in different artistic and decorative media. Most importantly, she invented an entirely new art form of “paper mosaicks” (i.e. botanical collages), producing nearly a thousand cut‐out images of various flowers, now kept at the British Museum. Mrs Delany's extensive correspondence and autobiographical writings were published posthumously and have ever remained an important source of insights on women's history of the 18th century. Highly regarded by her contemporaries, Mrs Delany's legacy was often dismissed by later critics who perceived her works as examples of mere fashionable accomplishments, ladylike pastimes of no artistic significance. In the article, I would like to draw the readers' attention to the great skill and exceptional accuracy with which the mosaicks were executed, pointing to Mrs Delany's substantial botanical knowledge and her awareness of scientific debates of her times, especially those regarding Linnaeus's botanical taxonomy.