Mary Granville

• 1700 †1788, [born Granville; first marriage Mary Pendarves; second marriage Mary Delany] was a British artist and very involved into the court.

The daughter of Bernard Granville and Mary Westcomb was born in Coulston, Wiltshire in 1700. Mary was not only very well educated and mastered French fluently, history, English literature and the classics. She also was a good musician, a “superb needlewoman” (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography) and was clever at “drawing, cutting and design”(Oxford Dictionary of National Biography). She was sent to live with her childless aunt Lady Stanley, where she also met the famous composer Handel with whom she stayed in contact for the rest of her life (cf. Dewes 1940).

In September 1717 Mary was invited to join the Lansdowne household at Longleast, where she met her first future husband Alexander Pendarves of Roscrow (1660-1725) who at this time was already 57 years old and a wealthy and childless Gentleman and friend of her uncle. His wish for an “heir to furthering his political alliance” (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography) made him proposing to Mary and because her family was “dependent on her uncle’s generosity” (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography), Mary had to accept it.

It was a very unhappy marriage for both spouses and Mary had to live totally isolated from her family and friends because of the jealousy of her husband. Even when they moved back to London, his sister had to keep an eye on her, however she could finally see her beloved ones. The domestic control ended when Pendarves died unexpected in 1725. During her widowhood she wrote many letters to her friends, her mother and her sister so that there was a great collection of them; “her autobiographical fragment, in the form of letters to the duchess, was written about 1740”(Oxford Dictionary of National Biography).

Her second husband was the Irish Anglican cleric Patrick Delany(1685/6–1768) and this time both partners “were clearly attracted to each other” (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography).

“Although the flower collages were Delany's major work of art, she left other evidence of her talents. She designed and embroidered panels for clothing, chair covers, bed hangings and coverings, and other furnishings. She was a fine copyist of paintings, a maker of silhouettes, and a creative crafter of shellwork” (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography).