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Mrs Delany : a life / Clarissa Campbell Orr.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New Haven : Yale University Press, [2019]Copyright date: 2019Description: xv, 405 pages, 24 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some colour), genealogical table ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
  • still image
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780300161137
  • 0300161131
Subject(s): Genre/Form: DDC classification:
  • 942.073092 DEL 23
LOC classification:
  • NX547.6.D45 O77 2019
Contents:
Granville family tree -- Part I. The early years -- Miss Mary Granville -- Cornish bride -- The new widow and the American prince -- Irish Idyll -- Woman of fashion -- Contented Aspasia -- Part II. A dean's wife -- Mrs Delany -- The duties of a dean's wife -- Life, love and literature in the Wellesbourne circle -- The lawsuit years -- From gladness to sadness -- Bernard and the Duchess befriend Rousseau and Patrick passes away -- Part III. New horizons -- Seven widows and the friendship circle -- The first collages and bluestocking initiatives -- Reviewing the collages and glimpsing Royal Felicity -- Poignant farewells and new developments -- Coda.
Summary: Mary Granville Delany is best remembered for her paper collages of flora, the majority of which are at the British Museum. This captivating new biography pulls back the lens to place Delany's artistic creations in the broader context of her family life, relationships with royalty, and links to early feminist debates on marriage. A comprehensive work written for a general audience, this life provides rich details of the era, including Delany's many friendships with prominent figures such as Methodist leader John Wesley, composer G. F. Handel, and England's leading patron of science, Margaret 2nd Duchess of Portland. Clarissa Campbell Orr is a noted authority on the eighteenth-century court and queenship, and this volume restores Delany to her proper place in the era's aristocratic society, revealing her as far more than an apparently poor, genteel widow befriended by George III and Queen Charlotte.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The first comprehensive biography of Mary Granville Delany--the artist and court insider whose flower collages, in particular, continue to inspire widespread admiration



"Biographer Clarissa Campbell Orr immerses you in the minutiae of Mary's life."--Constance Craig-Smith, Daily Mail



Mary Granville Delany (1700-1788), perhaps best known simply as Mrs Delany, is best remembered for her captivating paper collages of flowers, but her artistic flourishing came late in life. This nuanced, deeply researched biography pulls back the lens to place Delany's art in the broader context of her family life, relationships with royalty, and her endeavor to live as an independent woman.



Clarissa Campbell Orr, a noted authority on the eighteenth century court, charts Mary Delany's development from a young woman at the heart of elite circles to beloved godmother and celebrated collagist. Orr traces the varied connections Mary Delany fostered throughout her life and which influenced her intellectual and artistic development: she was friends with prominent figures such as Methodist leader, John Wesley, composer G. F. Handel, the writer Jonathan Swift, and England's leading patron of science, Margaret Bentinck, Duchess of Portland.



Mrs Delany reveals its subject to be far more than a widow befriended by George III and Queen Charlotte; she is, instead, restored to her proper place in the era's aristocratic society -and as a ground-breaking artist.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Granville family tree -- Part I. The early years -- Miss Mary Granville -- Cornish bride -- The new widow and the American prince -- Irish Idyll -- Woman of fashion -- Contented Aspasia -- Part II. A dean's wife -- Mrs Delany -- The duties of a dean's wife -- Life, love and literature in the Wellesbourne circle -- The lawsuit years -- From gladness to sadness -- Bernard and the Duchess befriend Rousseau and Patrick passes away -- Part III. New horizons -- Seven widows and the friendship circle -- The first collages and bluestocking initiatives -- Reviewing the collages and glimpsing Royal Felicity -- Poignant farewells and new developments -- Coda.

Mary Granville Delany is best remembered for her paper collages of flora, the majority of which are at the British Museum. This captivating new biography pulls back the lens to place Delany's artistic creations in the broader context of her family life, relationships with royalty, and links to early feminist debates on marriage. A comprehensive work written for a general audience, this life provides rich details of the era, including Delany's many friendships with prominent figures such as Methodist leader John Wesley, composer G. F. Handel, and England's leading patron of science, Margaret 2nd Duchess of Portland. Clarissa Campbell Orr is a noted authority on the eighteenth-century court and queenship, and this volume restores Delany to her proper place in the era's aristocratic society, revealing her as far more than an apparently poor, genteel widow befriended by George III and Queen Charlotte.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Clarissa Campbell Orr is the author of, or editor and contributor to, numerous essays and anthologies, including Queenship in Europe 1650-1789 and Queenship in Britain 1660-1837.

She was a Visiting Research Fellow at St Mary's University Twickenham from 2016 to 2018 after a long career at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge.

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