In chronological and intellectual terms Mary Gartside can be regarded an exemplary link between Moses Harris, who published his short but important Natural System of Colours around 1766, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s highly influential theory Zur Farbenlehre, first published in 1810.

[3] Gartside exhibited some of her own art work, paintings of flowers in watercolour, at the Royal Academy in 1781, at the Botanic Gardens in Liverpool in 1784, and at the Associated Artists in Water-Color in London in 1808.

[4] Between 1805 and 1808 Mary Gartside published three books on painting in watercolour that reflect her interest in colour theory and its applicability.

[8] Mary Gartside completed two drawings that were published in the third volume of Dru Drury's book Illustrations of Natural History.

Her work has recently been discussed by scholars such as Ian C. Bristow,[10] Ann Bermingham,[11] Martin Kemp,[12] Jean-Jacques Rosat [13] and Raphael Rosenberg.