Life Summary: Not much is known about Darly's early life, though most accounts find her after she married her husband, fellow artist Matthew Darly. Together they opened a shop on Fleet St., selling engravings and giving drawing lessons to the upper class. As print sellers, they work as a team creating and publishing until her death in 1779.
Major Works: A Book of Caricaturas, The Unfortunate Macaroni, The Flower Garden
Place in society/context: While there is little known of the details of Darly's life, it can be concluded that she came in contact with many people in her experience as an artist. She would have noted elegant aristocrats in her engravings, and yet chose to lampoon their vice with such "macaroni pictures." As a lower class female, Darly could navigate more smoothly within the print culture, as she did not have a family name to protect.
18th Century Lit. Importance: Darly's contributions to caricatures and drawing of the 18th century are now being studied within the field. Her partnership with her husband made her visible as an artist and eventually she became a printer in her own right.
Darly was an innovator, as noted by Bryant's analysis: "However, the mother of them all, perhaps, was the eighteenth-century artist, engraver, writer, printseller, publisher, and teacher, Mary Darly...who also wrote, illustrated, and published the first ever manual on how to draw caricatures" (Bryant 58). While she is not as well known as the other engravers on this site, her influence on print culture shaped the 18th century expectation of visual representation of society.