Autumn 2009 Catalogue 4 pdfing:1 - Yale University Press

16ArtCreative ingenuity, botanicalscholarship and a gift forfriendship combined in the lifeof a remarkable womanMary Delany, Pancratium maritimum. British Museum (detail).Exhibition scheduleYale Center for British Art,24/9/09–3/1/10Sir John Soane’s Museum, London18/2/10–1/5/10Mrs. Delany and Her CircleEdited by Mark Lairdand Alicia Weisberg-RobertsAt the age of seventy-two, Mary Delany, née Mary Granville(1700–1788), embarked upon a series of nearly a thousand botanicalcollages, or ‘paper mosaics’, which would prove to be the crowningachievement of her rich creative life. These delicate hand-cut floraldesigns, made by a method of Mrs. Delany’s own invention, vie withthe finest botanical works of her time. More than two centuries laterher extraordinary work continues to inspire.Although best known for these collages, Mrs. Delany was also anamateur artist, woman of fashion, and commentator on life and societyin eighteenth-century England and Ireland. Her prolific craft activitiesnot only served to cement personal bonds of friendship, but alsoallowed her to negotiate the interconnecting artistic, aristocratic andscientific networks that surrounded her. This ambitious andgroundbreaking book, the first to survey the full range of Mrs. Delany’screative endeavours, reveals the complexity of her engagement withnatural science, fashion and design.Mark Laird is Senior Lecturer in the Department of LandscapeArchitecture, Harvard Graduate School of Design. Alicia Weisberg-Robertsis assistant Curator of Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Art at theWalters Art Museum, Baltimore.September416 pp. 290x244mm.10 b/w + 300 colour illus.ISBN 978-0-300-14279-2 £40.00*Published in association with the Yale Center for British ArtTranslation rights: Yale Center for British Art, New Haven