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The Paper Garden: Mrs. Delany Begins Her Life's Work at 72
The Paper Garden is unlike anything else you have ever read. At once a biography of an extraordinary 18th century gentlewoman and a meditation on late-life creativity, it is a beautifully written tour de force from an acclaimed poet. Mary Granville Pendarves Delany (1700-1788) was the witty, beautiful and talented daughter of a minor branch of a powerful family. Married of...more
Hardcover, 416 pages
Published
October 12th 2010
by McClelland & Stewart
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How have I escaped ever knowing about the woman who invented collage? And where was I when the buzz began in 2010 about Molly Peacock’s extraordinary biography of her? I found both artists by accident, browsing through paperbacks piled on a table beside the tiny café inside the Book Worm in downtown Edwards, Colorado.
The Paper Garden: An Artist Begins Her Life’s Work at 72. It’s been a while since I’ve read a massive biography complete with endnotes and index. But in one of those reminders of th...more
The Paper Garden: An Artist Begins Her Life’s Work at 72. It’s been a while since I’ve read a massive biography complete with endnotes and index. But in one of those reminders of th...more
This is a hard book to categorize. It is a memoir of author/poet Molly Peacock braided around a biography of Mary Delaney, an artist who lived the 1700’s in the British Isles. The book could also be labeled a scrapbook for all the high quality photos.
Times were hard for women, even those close to the monarchy in the 1700's Their lives were dictated by the men of her family who could and did die and leave them with little or no support until another family member took them in.
Peacock selected pho...more
Times were hard for women, even those close to the monarchy in the 1700's Their lives were dictated by the men of her family who could and did die and leave them with little or no support until another family member took them in.
Peacock selected pho...more
Written by poet Molly Peacock, this book is less a biography of Mary Delany than a chronicle of how the 18th century woman, friend to King George III and Queen Charlotte, invented an art form at the age of 72. Delany is known by many for her embroidery designs rather than the paper mosaics. In her own time she was renowned for designing elaborate embroidered motifs for formal dresses and began her career in paper by cutting children's silhouettes.
Delany's life was, in part, rather tragic. She w...more
Delany's life was, in part, rather tragic. She w...more
The story of Mary Delany is true but it reads like a great historical novel. The New York Times said it read like a Jane Austen novel. I'm not sure I agree. Mary Delany was a strong-willed woman who managed to do very well in spite of whatever negatives life may have thrown at her. It's a life to be examined and works of art to be enjoyed.
Every word, sentence, and paragraph of The Paper Garden reads like a well-crafted prose or poem. This is Molly Peacock's art form, her craft, and she's very,...more
Every word, sentence, and paragraph of The Paper Garden reads like a well-crafted prose or poem. This is Molly Peacock's art form, her craft, and she's very,...more
This is a non-fiction book telling the life story of Mary Granville Pendarves Delany. A young woman of the 18th century, living in London she is basically sold into marriage by her uncle to an old drunk. This man is her uncle's friend and his money will keep Mary's family solvent. After he dies Mary, a young widow comes into her own. But it is not until she reaches the age of 72 that her extraordinary talent truly comes to the fore.
Mary invented the paper collage or as she called it the "mosaick...more
Mary invented the paper collage or as she called it the "mosaick...more
Mary Delany was born to Colonel Bernard Granville and Mary Granville. She grew up in a moderate home. She learned several different languages and took a liking to paper cutting. It wasn’t until she was married to Mr. Delany that Mary revisiting her artist side and her paper cutting. At this time Mary was seventy-two years old. The artwork Mary produced gained her lots of praise. Mary would cut out fake flowers or other items out of paper and than recreate beautiful artwork. She called her artwor...more
With my increasing age I become increasingly interested in people who blossom and find purpose (or re-purpose) late in life so I picked up this book from a table at Chapters because of the sub-title. However, from page one, I was charmed by not one life, but two. Peacock introduces the reader not only to the amazing Mary Granville Pendarves Delany, but to the thoughtful and observant Molly Peacock. She interweaves the story of Mrs. Delany’s life with her own discoveries about Mrs. Delany’s “mosa...more
This is a marvellous book! Hard to describe, part biography, part botanical information, part cruise through Georgian and Regency England, meeting Handel, Hogarth and dinner with Jonathan Swift. I'm already so interested in the actual paper mosaicks Mrs Delany started to make at 72, I have ordered Ruth Hayden's book, Mrs Delany: Her life and her flowers. Ruth is Mrs Delany's great-great-great-great-great-great-niece. Ruth was asked by the British Museum (where the 985 "mosaicks" are preserved) t...more
I enjoyed the life-story of this fascinating artist. I did not, however, appreciate the author's preoccupation with certain imagery throughout the first third of the book. Mary Delaney began her life's most memorable work at the age of 72, after the death of her second husband. She constructed floral reproductions using an intricate collage technique; in some, she used over 20 pieces of paper, such as seen here (though pictures do not do her work justice, as one cannot see the details).
Key quote...more
Key quote...more
A biography combining the author's memoirs sounds intriguing under normal circumstance, about the author's search about the person or their own self-discovery or whatever, especially when the biograph-ee is an artist. This, however, came across as really self-possessed, strange, and confusing. One is bombarded with names and casual relationships, the author's own intrusions, and this really strange sexual interpretation of the artwork from the beginning without context, as if the only inclusion...more
“Some things take living long enough to do.”
With this line Molly Peacock evokes the spirit, inspiration and breath of this beautiful book about the artist Mary Delany who created nine hundred eighty-five mosaics, the first completed in her seventy-third year. But to say that this is a book about the art of Mary Delany, her exquisite mosaics of flowers, which this book is, is to understate its power, its aim. The poet Molly Peacock has taken Mary Delany in her sights and locked onto her life to r...more
With this line Molly Peacock evokes the spirit, inspiration and breath of this beautiful book about the artist Mary Delany who created nine hundred eighty-five mosaics, the first completed in her seventy-third year. But to say that this is a book about the art of Mary Delany, her exquisite mosaics of flowers, which this book is, is to understate its power, its aim. The poet Molly Peacock has taken Mary Delany in her sights and locked onto her life to r...more
The subject of the book, Mrs. Delany, is a fascinating 18th century woman who, at the age of 72, invented the art of collage. Specifically, she created incredibly detailed and realistic flowers from cut paper--looking at the color prints you'd think they were paintings. But even before she began that creative work, Mrs. Delany lived a very interesting life. Married very young to a much older man, she had a miserable first marriage and was "liberated" as a young widow to live her life. She had co...more
I've gone back and forth on how I like this book as I read it. I loved the concept. I liked the historical 'recreation' of Delany's life. I rolled my eyes at the author's 'drama' and felt she pushed HER metaphors w/ the flowers too much, in order to make them fit her concept. And then I'd calm down and remind myself it WAS HER concept and that's why I was reading the book in the first place! I completely hated the imposition of the author's life into this - but again, that WAS the point of the b...more
Mary Granville Pendarves Delany (1700-1788) was quite a woman! At 72, she invented the mosaic, cutting out tiny pieces of handmade paper, which she'd painted herself, into shapes and then constructing incredible detailed and accurate reproductions of flowering plants. Her goal was to create 1000 -- she was only short by 20 or so. This book written by poet Molly Peacock gives a glimpse into her long life and so takes us back through the 18th century in England, providing insights into everyday li...more
Two biographies in one, The Paper Garden was more than I expected.
I don't usually read non-fiction or biographies unless it is about a person I am already interested in. So, why did I choose to read The Paper Garden? Like the author, I was intrigued by the idea of these beautifully intricate paper collages crafted by a woman at 72 years of age - a time when I imagine a person's fingers to be less than deft and eyesight unclear. Even more interesting was Mary Delany's life that lead her to this p...more
I don't usually read non-fiction or biographies unless it is about a person I am already interested in. So, why did I choose to read The Paper Garden? Like the author, I was intrigued by the idea of these beautifully intricate paper collages crafted by a woman at 72 years of age - a time when I imagine a person's fingers to be less than deft and eyesight unclear. Even more interesting was Mary Delany's life that lead her to this p...more
Beautiful biography by poet Molly Peacock of Mary Granville Pendarves Delany (1700 - 1788). Born into one of England's powerful aristocratic families, Mrs. Delany included in her circle of friends, George Handel, Jonathan Swift, Carl Linnaeus, King George and Queen Charlotte. After being widowed twice, she begins her life's work - her Flora Delanica; creating 985 botanically correct cut-paper flowers which are now kept in the British Museum. Mary Peacock's writing provides insight's into Mrs. De...more
Molly Peacock really did a fantastic job researching and writing a story about Mary Delany who was a paper artist one of the first collage paper artist in history she started her career back in 1700's in her 70's. Creating beautiful 3d realistic paper flowers on a black paper backdrop, These flowers were made out of hundreds of pieces of hand painted paper - that she not only painted but she made the paper and the paint.
The end product is life like, incredible and the fact that they are still in...more
The end product is life like, incredible and the fact that they are still in...more
Dec 31, 2012
Maria
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Historians interested in 1700s England
Recommended to Maria by:
Saw it at Politics & Prose
The most distracting part about the book was the discussion of the collages. The most interesting part of the book was the discussion about Mrs. Delany's life. In fact, although the collages were used as a glue, and the backdrop, they didn't add to the text.
The author valiantly attempted to find links from her world to Mrs. Delany's world, and it felt forced. Mrs. Delany's life had already been written about, which is why I thought the author strategized this text in a multi-story-layered way....more
The author valiantly attempted to find links from her world to Mrs. Delany's world, and it felt forced. Mrs. Delany's life had already been written about, which is why I thought the author strategized this text in a multi-story-layered way....more
This is a very different book than I expected. Peacock has taken 13 of the 985 works that Delany made and used them to illustrate her life.
Each work is the focus of a chapter, and each chapter moves through Mrs. Delany's life from childhood through old age. Each chapter also follows Peacock's writing of this book, from her first awareness of the wonderful art created by Mrs. Delany to the completion of this book.
It is a fascinating structure for a biography, a revival of awareness in this amazin...more
Each work is the focus of a chapter, and each chapter moves through Mrs. Delany's life from childhood through old age. Each chapter also follows Peacock's writing of this book, from her first awareness of the wonderful art created by Mrs. Delany to the completion of this book.
It is a fascinating structure for a biography, a revival of awareness in this amazin...more
I'd never heard of Mary Delany before I read this book. Her mosaicks are beautiful and her story is compelling. The book is a combination biography and memoir. Molly Peacock weaves her own story in and among Mary Delany's and her observations are interesting and somewhat thought-provoking. This isn't a book to rush through but it was still too slow for me. It was also much more scholarly than I'd anticipated and at times almost reads like a textbook.
I had a really hard time getting into it. It...more
I had a really hard time getting into it. It...more
This is quite a remarkable story of Mary Delany who was born in 1700 and rubbed shoulders with the likes of Handel and Jonathan Swift. At the age of 72 she began creating works of art using paper which depicted flowers she observed in her gardens. These incredibly detailed pieces, almost 1000 of them, can be found in the British Museum. The author writes in great detail, sometimes to the point of distraction. She also includes her own story which is distracting and takes away from the main chara...more
Poet Molly Peacock’s The Paper Garden is not only a collage and biography of a woman, Mary Delany, who began a career as an artist late in life, but it also is partially a memoir of Peacock’s own life and the nuggets of wisdom she’s gained from her obsession with this floral artist and her collages or flower mosaicks. Delany is a woman who began working with scissors and paper long before she gained recognition for her art, starting as a young girl in school. While one of her classmates recogniz...more
This is a totally wonderful book! The author is a poet, and this narrative of a fascinating 18th century British woman is beautifully written. Mrs. Delany had a checkered life full of good things and bad things, none terribly unique until she turned 70 yrs old. Then it suddenly all came together and she turned out almost 1000 incredibly detailed cut paper mosiacs or collages of flowers. They are unbelievably complex and lovely. Some are reproduced in the book, and all are safely collected at the...more
For readers who enjoy 18th-century England, paper arts, poetry, historical manners and mores, the path women artists take (a la A Room of One's Own), and love triangles, this book has a little something to intrigue everyone. Molly Peacock, a marvelous and marvelously talented poet, interweaves her own life's hits and misses with those of her subject, Mrs. Delany. Peacock's imagistic descriptions of the paper flowers as well as the twists and turns in Delany's life (and in Peacock's own) are beau...more
The story behind this book is pretty incredible: talented, perceptive 18th-century woman rises above the crappy hand she's dealt and invents a new art form. If this book had simply told Mary Delany's life story, it could have been wonderful. Instead, the author chose to fill the pages with the following: oversharing about her own personal life (e.g., cancer scares, relationship with her father, alcoholism, none of which seemed to have any bearing on Mary Delany's story); half-baked, overreaching...more
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The title of this book is The Paper Garden : An Artist Begins Her Life’s Work At 72. I want to state for those, like me, who had never hear of the artist Mary Granville Pendarves Delany technically she did not become an artist at 72 which is the impression I gathered from the title. So just in case you thought the same that would be false. She studied early on in life with art but the craft of Mosaic collage is what she know for starting especially depicting flowers in way no one had done before...more
This marvelous book is a mix of biography and memoir, written in a beautiful, inviting style that feels as if the author is having coffee with you and sharing her latest research. Molly Peacock is a poet who conveys Mary Granville Delaney's life in lovely, lyrical detail that is educational and enjoyable.
It helps that Mary Delaney's life is captivating: in addition to being a talented artist, she was great friends with many luminaries of her day, and her eighty-eight years encompassed some incr...more
It helps that Mary Delaney's life is captivating: in addition to being a talented artist, she was great friends with many luminaries of her day, and her eighty-eight years encompassed some incr...more
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Mrs. Delany, an 18thC aristocratic lady, invented a whole new artform at the age of 72. This book explores her life and work, and the links to the author's life in sections themed around some of Delany's beautiful cut paperwork floral portraits. Delany led a full and rich life which was well-documented by letters, and this is not only a fascinating biography of life in the 1700's (her life spanned most of the century) but also a rare portrait of a female artist.
Mary Delaney's life in the 1700's was fascinating, and the biologically correct paper flowers she created are exquisite. Still, I was a little disappointed that the author tried to attach her erotic interpretations to the work and also inserted chunks of her own life story. When I read a biography, I want to read about the biographee - not the biographer! I would also have liked to see more than the small selection of her flowers presented. C+
The author views the almost 200 paper collages of flowers that Mary Delany created from age 72 on as portraits of her early life. I could not accept that two tulips bending toward each other indicated that Lord X was attracted to her any more than the little bud, partially hidden behind a flower, suggested that Mary had a homosexual attraction to his younger sister. I have made up this example to show how over analysed the book is.
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Molly Peacock has published several books of poetry, including Cornucopia: New and Selected Poems, and a memoir, Paradise, Piece by Piece. She has been the president of the Poetry Society of America and poet-in-residence at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine. Her poems appear in leading publications and anthologies, including The Best American Poetry and The Oxford Book of American Poetry...more
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“Is being burnt a requisite for the making of art? Personally, I don't think it is. But art is poultice for a burn. It is a privilege to have, somewhere within you, a capacity for making something speak from your own seared experience.”
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“The secret of marriage is thinking that your partner is better than yourself.”
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