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Maria Sibylla Merian (1647 - 1717)
Maria Sibylla Merian
(1647 - 1717) |
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Scientific and naturalistic illustratons of plants, insects and birds Art Work
| Name: |
Maria Sibylla Merian |
| Gender: |
Female |
| Place of Birth: |
Frankfurt, Germany |
| Nationality: |
German |
| Birth: |
1647 |
| Death: |
1717 |
| Website: |
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| Past Auctions: |
Click Here |
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Quick Facts
| Known For: |
Scientific and naturalistic illustratons of plants, insects and birds |
| Medium: |
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| Method: |
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| Style: |
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| Fine Art Profession(s): |
Illustration
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Biography
It is early in the year 1702, In the Rose Branch, her house in Amsterdam's Kerkstraat, Maria Sibylla Merian is at work on a book about flora and fauna in the Dutch colony Surinam in South America. Carefully mixing the top-quality watercolors she has made herself, she uses the finest of brushes to paint exotic sprays of flowers in yellow and orange on a large sheet of the most expensive parchment. She depicts caterpillars crawling over the leaves and stems with the same exactitude as the firmly spun cocoons from which she shows butterflies and moths emerging with delicately shaded wings.
The previous autumn Merian had returned from a study trip to Surinam - at the time an extremely hazardous undertaking for a woman, especially one over fifty years old. She and her daughter Dorothea had spent two years in the hot and humid climate sketching beetles, flowers, leaves, caterpillars, butterflies and reptiles until they almost dropped dead from exhaustion. These studies from nature now formed the basis of artistic compositions. In these the viewer's attention is always drawn to an exotic plant with colorful flowers, fruit and large leaves, but the artist's own interest was insects, which she depicted lifesize at every stage of their development. Nothing of the kind had been seen before in Europe. Scientists and enthusiasts had already collected specially preserved specimens of exotic insects for their chambers of curiosities, but Merian presented them not as dead objects but as living creatures metamorphosing in their natural environment.
Metamorphosis
sectorum Surinamensium (The Metamorphosis of the Insects of Surinam) was Merian s magnum opus, for which she spared no expense or effort. Sixty printing plates were engraved in the original size after her watercolors, and she herself wrote commentaries and descriptions that included discussion of the indigenous populations way of life. By this time Merian was already well known. In her first publication, Blumertbuth [Flower Book) of 1675, she provided naturalistic models for embroidery and painting on cloth, which were popular activities among burghers' wives at the time. Her second book, a volume on caterpillar's entitled Der Raupen wunderbare Verwandlung und sonderbare Blumennahrung of 1679, attracted the attention of naturalists and scholars.
The metamorphosis of the plain caterpillar into the resplendent butterfly had fascinated Merian ever since her childhood in Frankfurt am Main. Stimulated by a visit to a local silkworm breeder, she began collecting and classifying insects in cardboard boxes. The daughter of a respected publisher and engraver, Matthaus Merian the Elder, she grew up in a cultivated environment. Following the early death of her father, she acquired knowledge of artistic techniques from her stepfather, Jacob Marrel, an experienced still-life painter. Since guild regulations in Frankfurt did not permit women to practice oil painting, she concentrated on watercolor and learned engraving. She married the moderately successful architectural painter Johann Andreas Graff while still young, but continued her scientific and artistic activities unabated. The marriage appears not to have been happy: the couple separated twenty years later, and Merian and her two daughters joined a strict religious community in the Netherlands. All her work had been informed by a profound Christian faith, which led her to recognize the presence of God in even the tiniest insect. To this day, the precision of her images and their artistic quality have lost none of their power to captivate the viewer.
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Maria Sibylla Merian was born in Germany the daughter of a Dutch mother and Swiss father. She is described as one of the very best botanical and natural life artists of her time. After her father's death--he was an engraver by profession--Merian's mother married Jacob Marrell an artist of some note who specialized in painting flowers. Merian produced a three-volume catalogue of flower engravings under the title Neues Blumen Buch or The New Flower Book. She also published a three volume set of insect paintings between 1679-1717. These were drawn from direct observation and were the foundations of the biologist Linnaues' later work on the classification of biological species. in 1699 Merian and her two daughters undertook a journey to the Ducth colony of Surinam in South America. This was a scientific expedition sponsored by the city of Amsterdam. The professional dedication and courage it took for a woman to undertake such a long, dangerous journey to a tropical colony in those times may well be imagined. Merian stayed two years in Surinam during which time collected a large number of plant, animal and insect specimens. She was also one of the first Europeans to observe and make notes of the local people and their customs. The result of this expediction was the publication two years later of the work Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamsium. This masterpiece consisted of plates engraved from Merian's meticulously detailed water color paintings of the plants and insect of Surinam. |
Samples of Work
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