Portrait of Maria Sibylla Merian (1647–1717)
German artist Maria Sibylla Merian (1647–1717) & her daughters Johanna Helena & Dorothea Maria raised the artistic standards of natural history & botanical illustration & helped transform the field of entomology, the study of insects.
Maria Sibylla Merian was born in Frankfurt, Germany, into a family of publishers & artists. Her father, artist Matthäus Merian the Elder (1593-1650), published some of the most influential natural history & botanical texts of the 1600s.
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Merian's stepfather, artist & teacher Dutch still-life painter, print & tulip dealer Jakob Marrel (1613–1681). introduced his young daughter Merian to the art of miniature flower painting. Merian learned how to draw, mix paints, paint in watercolor, & create prints alongside her stepfather's traditional male pupils. Merian sold hand colored editions of the Blumenbuch series. Merian's process of creating her art used vellum which she primed with a white coat. Because of the guild system, women were not allowed to paint in oil. Merian painted with watercolors & gouache, instead.
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Merian married her stepfather's favorite pupil, Johann Andreas Graff (German, 1636–1701), at the age of 18. In 1670, 5 years after her marriage to the painter Graff, the family moved to Nuremberg, where Merian published her 1st illustrated books. There, while having 2 daughters of her own, she also instructed her girls & the daughters of neighbors in embroidery & painting.
Merian initially made a name for herself as a botanical artist. In 1675, she started to publish a 3-volume series, each with 12 plates depicting flowers. In 1680 she published Neues Blumenbuch, combining the series.
By 1686, Merian left her husband moving with her 2 daughters & her elderly, widowed mother to a religious community in the Dutch province of West Friesland.
When this religious community collapsed in 1691, Merian & her daughters moved to Amsterdam, the center of world trade & 3rd largest city in Europe. Johanna Helena & Dorothea Maria learned their mother's art. The 3 women set up a studio together, painting flowers, plants, birds, & insects as well as selling artists' materials alongside preserved insects & animals.
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Maria Sibylla Merian (German artist, 1647-1717) Vine branch and black grapes, with moth, caterpillar and chrysalis of gaudy sphinx, 1701-5
Merian's artistic and scientific interests outgrew Amsterdam's supply of exotic plants & animals. In 1699, the city of Amsterdam helped sponsor the 52-year-old Merian's travel to Surinam along with her younger daughter, Dorothea Maria, age 21. Before departing, she wrote: "In Holland, I noted with much astonishment what beautiful animals came from the East and West Indies. I was blessed with having been able to look at both the expensive collection of Doctor Nicolaas Witsen, mayor of Amsterdam and director of the East Indies society, and that of Mr. Jonas Witsen, secretary of Amsterdam. Moreover I also saw the collections of Mr. Fredericus Ruysch, doctor of medicine and professor of anatomy and botany, Mr. Livinus Vincent, and many other people. In these collections I had found innumerable other insects, but finally if here their origin and their reproduction is unknown, it begs the question as to how they transform, starting from caterpillars and chrysalises and so on. All this has, at the same time, led me to undertake a long dreamed of journey to Suriname."
Maria Sibylla Merian died in 1717. Near the time of her death, her watercolors were purchased for Czar Peter the Great of Russia. Shortly thereafter, Dorothea published a 3rd volume of her mother's The Caterpillar Book with 50 more of her mother's observations with an appendix on insects observed by Johanna Helena, who had moved to Suriname in 1711.
Maria Sibylla Merian Frontispiece of The Wondrous Metamorphosis of the Caterpillar, and its Strange Nourishment by Flowers (1679)
Around 1718, Dorothea moved to Saint Petersburg, where she continued to work as an artist. Dorothea sold the plates of The Insects of Suriname to a Dutch publisher, who reissued the book in 1719 with 12 additional plates. Thanks to her daughters' continued diligence, Merian left a lasting mark on entomology. The insect images in this posting are attributed to Merian & perhaps to her daughters.
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Maria Sibylla Merian (German artist, 1647-1717) Wooly-haired Megalopygio Caterpiller
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Maria Sibylla Merian (German artist, 1647-1717) Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium 1705
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Maria Sibylla Merian (German artist, 1647-1717) Metamorphosis of the Insects Grapefruit
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Maria Sibylla Merian (German artist, 1647-1717) Botanical
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Maria Sibylla Merian (German artist, 1647-1717) Botanical
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Maria Sibylla Merian (German artist, 1647-1717) Lizard and Banana
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Maria Sibylla Merian (German artist, 1647-1717) From Transformations of the insects of Surinam 1705
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Maria Sibylla Merian (German artist, 1647-1717) Pineapple From Transformations of the insects of Surinam 1705
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Maria Sibylla Merian (German artist, 1647-1717) Grapes Metamorphosis of the Insects
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Maria Sibylla Merian (German artist, 1647-1717) Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium 1705
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Maria Sibylla Merian (German artist, 1647-1717) Botanical
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Maria Sibylla Merian (German artist, 1647-1717) Branch of guava tree with leafcutter ants, army ants, pink-toed tarantulas, c. 1701-5
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Maria Sibylla Merian (German artist, 1647-1717) Iguana and Coral Snake
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Maria Sibylla Merian (German artist, 1647-1717) Lizard
Maria Sibylla Merian (German artist, 1647-1717) Surinam Caiman Fighting a South American False Coral Snake 1699-1703 from The Insects of Suriname, 1719
Her botanical drawings were decorative & not all were drawn based on observation. Some of the flowers in the 3-volume series could be based on drawings by her stepfather Jacob Marrel. Merian often included insects among the flowers, again she may not have observed them all herself. The single flowers, wreaths, nosegays & bouquets in the 3 volumes would provide patterns for artists & embroiderers. At that time, embroidery was an essential part of the education that privileged young women received in Europe. Copying from other artists also was part of an artist's training during that period. Her botanical compositions would be used as patterns for paintings, drawings & sewing.
When this religious community collapsed in 1691, Merian & her daughters moved to Amsterdam, the center of world trade & 3rd largest city in Europe. Johanna Helena & Dorothea Maria learned their mother's art. The 3 women set up a studio together, painting flowers, plants, birds, & insects as well as selling artists' materials alongside preserved insects & animals.
Merian's artistic and scientific interests outgrew Amsterdam's supply of exotic plants & animals. In 1699, the city of Amsterdam helped sponsor the 52-year-old Merian's travel to Surinam along with her younger daughter, Dorothea Maria, age 21. Before departing, she wrote: "In Holland, I noted with much astonishment what beautiful animals came from the East and West Indies. I was blessed with having been able to look at both the expensive collection of Doctor Nicolaas Witsen, mayor of Amsterdam and director of the East Indies society, and that of Mr. Jonas Witsen, secretary of Amsterdam. Moreover I also saw the collections of Mr. Fredericus Ruysch, doctor of medicine and professor of anatomy and botany, Mr. Livinus Vincent, and many other people. In these collections I had found innumerable other insects, but finally if here their origin and their reproduction is unknown, it begs the question as to how they transform, starting from caterpillars and chrysalises and so on. All this has, at the same time, led me to undertake a long dreamed of journey to Suriname."
Maria Sibylla Merian (1647–1717)
Maria Sibylla Merian died in 1717. Near the time of her death, her watercolors were purchased for Czar Peter the Great of Russia. Shortly thereafter, Dorothea published a 3rd volume of her mother's The Caterpillar Book with 50 more of her mother's observations with an appendix on insects observed by Johanna Helena, who had moved to Suriname in 1711.
Around 1718, Dorothea moved to Saint Petersburg, where she continued to work as an artist. Dorothea sold the plates of The Insects of Suriname to a Dutch publisher, who reissued the book in 1719 with 12 additional plates. Thanks to her daughters' continued diligence, Merian left a lasting mark on entomology. The insect images in this posting are attributed to Merian & perhaps to her daughters.
Maria Sibylla Merian's - Timeline
April 2, 1647: born Frankfurt, Germany to a family of Swiss heritage, artist & publisher Matthäus Merian the Elder (1593-1650) & Johanna Catharina Sibylla Heim (c.1620-1690)
1651: Her stepfather encourages her to paint.
1660: She begins to paint images of insects & plants from specimens she had captured. Throughout her life she kept specimens & studied their life cycles.
1665: She marries & shortly afterwards has her first child. She continued to paint & also taught painting. Her specimens came from gardens.
1675: Publishes her 1st collection of engravings - Neues Blumenbuch - New book of flowers
1677: Publishes her 2nd collection of engravings - Der Raupen wunderbare Verwandlung und sonderbare Blumennahrung -- The Caterpillar, Marvelous Transformation & Strange Floral Food. In this set of engravings she demonstrated the life cycle of the butterfly & how it transforms from a caterpillar to a butterfly.
1680: Publishes her 3rd collection of engravings
1685: Merian leaves her husband & moved to a religious commune which practiced celibacy with her mother & two daughters - Johanna Helen & Dorothea Maria.
She lived in a home owned by Cornelis van Sommelsdijk, the governor of Surinam. This enabled her to begin her studies of the tropical flora & fauna of Surinam & South America.
1690: Her mother dies & she moves to Amsterdam. Her daughter subsequently marries & moves to Surinam - a Dutch colony. (Surinam was colonised by the Dutch in the 17C & known as Dutch Guiana until 1954)
1699: The city of Amsterdam sponsors Merian to go on a trip to Surinam with her daughter. She travels around the area now known as French, Dutch & British Guianas for two years. Her work involves sketching the plant life, animals & insects.
1701: Merian returns to Amsterdam due to malaria. She sells the specimens she has collected & begins her preparations to produce & publish a collection of engravings about the life in Surinam. Between 1701 & 1705 she makes 60 copperplate engravings to illustrate the stages of insect development, arranged around the cultivated & wild plants she had encountered on her travels.
1705: Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium, her illustrated book about the Insects of Surinam is published in Dutch & Latin. With its detailed text & imagery, the Metamorphosis is the first work on the natural history of Surinam.
1715: Merian suffers a stroke after which she is partially paralysed & subsequently becomes a pauper as she is unable to work
January 13, 1717: She dies in Amsterdam. A collection of her work - Erucarum Ortus Alimentum et Paradoxa Metamorphosis - is published posthumously
