French, London-based artist Delphine Lebourgeois launches four limited edition prints that send flower-armoured rocket ballerinas into battle, each one hiding a small inner child beneath the defence.
Delphine Lebourgeois’s warrior women have always moved as a troop. The Ballerina Collection sends four new recruits to join them, each one armed with the particular defences of a different flower: the rose, the orchid, the cactus and the carnivorous plant, all chosen for their feisty appearance and natural capacity to protect themselves. These are not decorative flowers. They are fighters.
The figures are rocket ballerinas, Lebourgeois’s term for the quality of propulsion and precision her characters carry. Whimsy, fierceness and vulnerability coexist in each one, and the tension between those qualities is what gives the series its psychological depth. Look closely and each piece reveals a small inner child tucked within the composition.
“If you take a closer look, each piece hides a small inner child, one of the key symbols in my work,” she says. “It’s a quiet detail that hints at something softer beneath the armour, something that needs protecting.”
The armour and the tenderness are not opposites here. The vulnerability is the reason for the armour. The more fragile something is, the stronger the protection around it becomes.
The floral research for the series grew partly from a visit to the Huntington Botanical Gardens in September 2025, where Lebourgeois photographed extensively, those images becoming references for the drawings that followed. Each piece began with multiple ink-on-paper drawings, then moved through collage, digital assembly and colouring across many iterations before arriving at the final stage. The prints are archival giclée on 308gsm Hahnemühle Photorag paper, in a limited edition of 35 at A3 format.
The Ballerina Collection made its debut at the Rosa Botanical Art Fair from 1 to 4 May 2026.
Delphine Lebourgeois is a French artist based in London, trained at the École des Beaux Arts de Lyon and Central Saint Martins. Her practice explores human psychology through precise, story-led scenarios, with female characters that act as guardians of individual freedom. Her work has been featured in The Guardian, Vogue, Time Out and Soho House.
ARTIST LINKS
delphinelebourgeois.com
@delphinelebourgeois
delphinelebourgeois.com/shop/ballerina
Ballerina Collection, 2026. Archival giclée on Hahnemühle Photorag 308gsm, 29.7 × 42cm. Limited edition of 35. Shown at Rosa Botanical Art Fair, 1–4 May 2026.
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