At the age of 72, Mary Delany, nee Mary Granville (1700‱788), a botanical artist, woman of fashion and commentator on life and society in Eighteenth Century England and Ireland, embarked on a series of 1,000 botanical collages, or “paper mosaics.” These were the crowning achievement of a life defined by creative accomplishment. The delicate hand cut floral designs, made by a method of Delany’s own invention, rival the finest botanical works of her time.
An ambitious exhibition, “Mrs Delany and her Circle,” on view through January 3 at the Yale Center for British Art, is the first to survey the full range of Delany’s creative endeavors, revealing the complexity of her engagement with natural science, art and design. Her prolific craft activities served to cement bonds of friendship and allowed her to negotiate the interlinked artistic, aristocratic and scientific networks that defined her social world.
A range of approximately 130 objects, including drawings, collages, embroidered textiles, shells, botanical specimens and manuscripts related to her interest in landscape gardening, reflect the variety of her activities. The exhibition also features a floral display inspired by Delany’s designs, as well as a site-specific installation by London-based artist Jane Wildgoose. “Mrs Delany and her Circle” has been co-organized by the Yale Center for British Art and Sir John Soane’s Museum. The center is the only North American venue for the exhibition.
While Delany is best known for her botanical collages, she created bold new garden designs, decorated her home and garden with shell decoupage, fashioned paper silhouettes and was an accomplished embroiderer who produced elaborate designs for dresses and furnishings. The exhibition reunites a significant number of Delany’s textiles. Among her best designs was a court dress embroidered with a cascade of naturalistic flowers on black satin, circa 1739‴0.
This garment was disassembled and preserved by Delany’s heirs and represents a marriage of art and nature that vividly foreshadows her later accomplishments. Pieces of the dress, reunited here for the first time, are accompanied by didactic material that allows visitors to understand the garment as a whole and will explain the equally interesting story of its survival.
Also on view are embroideries by Delany and her circle that demonstrate the importance of the art of the needle to Eighteenth Century female society.
The exhibition shows 30 of Delany’s “paper mosaics,” lent by the British Museum, which houses nearly 1,000 of her works. Unlike most botanical illustrations, these collages were created from hundreds of tiny pieces of cut paper.
Through comparison with the works of her contemporaries, the exhibition explores the context of Delany’s striking collages and the relationship between her close attention to the natural world and the visual culture of natural history.
The center is at 1080 Chapel Street. For information, www.yale.edu/ycba or 203-432-2800.
