 |
| photo by Bill Slavin |
One of my favorite sets of Bill's photos is a collection of objects that he has arranged on black paper. They remind me of the 18th-century still-life painters with their exquisite focus and detail. Black paper or background makes the objects seem suspended in air and the details within most objects highly visible.
One inspiration for this style of work comes from Mary Granville Pendarves Delany, a woman from the 18th century from an influential family in England, whose friends included Handel, John Wesley, and Jonathan Swift, and who often stayed with King George III and his family, all of whom are still familiar names to us. Her friends were leading lights of her time, but she has been lost to us even though she developed a technique using paper decoupage to illustrate flowers with botanical precision. Decoupage remains a flourishing way of creating works of art on paper today.
 |
| by Mary Granville Delany (this is not a painting) courtesy of the British Museum |
Starting at 72 years old, Delany began cutting strips from paper already covered with watercolor paint. She layered the bits of paper to make copies of flowers from gardens, and glued them down onto black paper. She completed almost 1000 of these images, which she combined into what she called Botanica Delanica. The folio of work now resides at the British Museum.
We have ignored so many women artists, especially from this period of time. I had never heard of Mary Granville Pendarves Delany. Have you? She is one from the 18th century like Mary Moser and Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun that we ought to know. Delany, who led a fascinating life around dynamic individuals, spent most of her time doing the work of an aristocratic woman of that time period. She embroidered, sewed, managed several households, orchestrated dinners, gardened, and painted throughout her life. She did not exhibit her paintings. They were entertainment to fill time in busy days.
When Delany was in her late sixties, her second and beloved husband died, leaving her bereft. It wasn't until a close friend swooped her up into her own home and encouraged Delany to find an outlet for her sorrow that she began to gather examples of flowers from the gardens around her. With paper and scissors, she designed exact replicas of the flowers from paper, and created a new art form using paper decoupage.
Molly Peacock's book The Paper Garden describes this late-in-life burst of creativity which spurred Delany to return to a flourishing life filled with friends who admired her work. Delany continued to cut and past for 15 years until she began to lose her eyesight and had to put her tools away.
Her technique influences many artists today including the artist Viveca Moller, who says of her artwork:
"I enjoy myself with scissors, thread and needle, glue, loads of silks, lace, velvet, a wide variety of paper and printed material."
 |
| courtesy of vivecamoller.wordpress.com |
Check out the Botanica Delanica collection at the British Museum:
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/search?agent=Mary%20Delany
For more of Viveca Moller's art:
Check this list of female artists. How many do you know?
http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/women-artists-18th.html
My post Summer, Water, Bounty from last Friday has been re-published in Frog Hollow Farm's newsletter. Take a look at their marvelous offerings!
From Mary by email: I couldn’t believe that the flower picture was a decoupage. It was exquisite. I would love to see her work up close. Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteReply: I would love to sit at the British Museum as Molly Peacock, the author, did and look through the Botanica Delanica. What a remarkable book it must be.
From Cheryl by email:Lovely.
ReplyDeleteI have not heard of Mary Delany either.
And I love YOUR image of fruit on black paper that Bill photographed.
REPLY: Thank you for your positive comments and encouragement, Cheryl. I pass this on to Bill.