44 of 100: Mary Delany, collagist

Yet more flowers: today, by the Englishwoman Mary Delany (1700–1788), who when she was 72 noticed the similarity between the petals of a geranium and a piece of red paper she spotted lying on a table. She took up some scissors and soon had created a convincing facsimile of the flower. And on she went, fashioning nearly 1,000 "cut flowers" or, as she called them, "mosaicks" before failing eyesight forced her to stop in 1782. The collection, known as the Flora Delanica, filled ten albums, which came to the British Museum in 1897, bequeathed by her niece, and today are among the most-viewed items in the Department of Prints and Drawings. (The entire collection is browsable here.) Her skill was such that the great 18th-century botanist Sir Joseph Banks declared her collages to be "the only imitations of nature" he had ever seen from which he "could venture to describe botanically any plant without the least fear of committing an error."

Sometimes she touched up her creations with watercolor, or incorporated a bit of plant material itself—as in this winter cherry or Chinese lantern (Physalis sp.). 

But mostly, they were simply paper. Here are a few more of her creations. And to think, she started at age 72! Maybe there's hope for me yet.

Centaurea cyanis, 1779

Aloe perfoliata, 1780

Cyclamen europaeum, 1777

Helianthus annuus (Great Sun-flower), 1772–82

Paeonia tenuifolia, 1778

Rosa gallica, 1782

Pancratium maritimum (Sea Daffodil), 1778

Passiflora laurifolia: bay leaved, 1777
(with over 230 paper petals in the bloom)

Crinum zeylanicum (Asphodil Lilly), 1778