Where: British Museum Collection of 91 drawings by Maria Sibylla Merian, London, England
When: 1705–1706 from her trip to Suriname, South America What: Watercolor and bodycolor on vellum 36.8 x 24.9 cm What do you see? The image above shows plate 55 from an album of ninety-one drawings entitled Merian's Drawings of Surinam Insects (Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium) from 1705. The plant bears leaves, a flower, bud growth, and the growing green, yellow, and red peppers. Merian shows the stages of development of the peppers from several angles so the viewer sees the peppers' top, bottom, sides, and body. This plant is nutritious and supports the lifecycle of the moth. There are some errors in this volume of her work. It is believed that some of her samples got mixed up on the trip back to Holland from Suriname and were mislabeled on her return home. This insect was identified as a butterfly but is now classified as a moth. The Royal Collection Trust specifically called it a Carolina Sphinx Moth. Each of these plates is individually drawn and printed, demonstrating their differences. The printed versions show many more differences in colors and shadings, while others produce reverse printing. The yellow pepper on the right is split to reveal the eggs laid by the moth. The eggs will become larvae or caterpillars, which we can see on the leaf near the bottom. It will weave itself into a chrysalis (the correct term for moths and butterflies) or pupa with other insects, as seen on the green pepper on the left. The chrysalis is protected by an outer layer called the cocoon. The chrysalis transforms to produce a new insect that will emerge from the cocoon as a new moth, and the cycle repeats.
Merian made a note about this plate in the text, ensuring the public would understand that the caterpillar ate both the peppers and the leaves. She also felt it pertinent to report that the moth was only active at night. Her powers of observation and determination to illuminate the lifecycle of insects and flowers provided the first framework for understanding the interdependence of life and nature.
Maria used watercolors and bodycolor (a term used to indicate that the watercolor has substance and thickness as opposed to transparency and fluidity). Her colors were brightened with white and pen with grey ink. The originals were painted on vellum. This parchment is made by a complicated process that stretches calf skin or other animal skin on a frame to produce a taut, smooth, somewhat waxy-feeling surface that is very resilient and versatile. Maria Sibylla Merian, with her enormous artistic talent, a tremendous curiosity about nature, and an intelligence to match, changed the scientific approach to zoology and entomology as well as the art of illustration in the sciences. She was a woman far ahead of her time. Who was Maria Sibylla Merian? She was born on April 2, 1647, in Frankfurt am Main, now in Germany. She died in Amsterdam in 1717 at age 69. Her father, Matthäus Merian the Elder, died in 1650 when she was three. Matthäus was born in Basel, Switzerland, and studied in Zurich, where he learned the art of copperplate engraving. He lived in Oppenheim, Germany, where he worked for a publisher. In 1617, he married his employer's daughter, firmly establishing himself in the publishing and engraving community. Eventually, the family moved to Frankfurt. He and his first wife had four daughters and three sons. His wife died in 1645; the following year, he married Johanna Sibylla Heim. Five years later, he died, leaving his second wife with two small children, Anna Maria Sibylla (1647), and a son who died before his third birthday.
Maria's father published some of the most influential natural history texts of the 1600s. The details in his publications are evident in the above engraving, and Maria would later specialize in the same subject.
Maria's mother remarried the flower painter, Jacob Marrel. He had studied in Frankfurt with Georg Flegel, a man well known for his still-life paintings. Marrel moved to Utrecht, where he continued his studies with Jan Davidsz. de Heem from 1632 to 1650. He then returned to Frankfurt to marry Maria's mother in 1651. He took on students himself and eventually established his school of flower painting.
Maria's early life: Jacob taught and encouraged his stepdaughter, Maria Sibylla Merian, to develop her talents. He introduced the young Maria to the art of miniature flower painting against her mother's will. Most girls were taught rudimentary reading, writing, and household skills at the time. Still, Maria was also taught to draw, mix paints, paint in watercolor, and print books and pictures alongside her brothers and other male students in her stepfather's school. This young girl was about to use her father's and stepfather's art and business acumen in a world that made both pursuits very difficult for a woman.
Maria began to collect and study insects in her back garden. By the time she was 13, she had already observed the metamorphosis of a silkworm. She was exposed to these insects because of the industry in the silk trade that was part of Frankfurt. Silkworm breeding was widespread, and for several decades, Frankfurt was the most important European center for silk. Her observation of caterpillars, moths, and butterflies led to her metamorphosis findings, ten years ahead of any published articles. It's hard to believe now, but this was at a time when people thought insects appeared magically from mud, waste, and plant matter, a process then called "spontaneous generation." She was the first to observe and record the whole process. In the foreword of her most famous books, she wrote: "I spent my time investigating insects. At the beginning, I started with silkworms in my hometown of Frankfurt. I realized that other caterpillars produced beautiful butterflies or moths, and that silkworms did the same. This led me to collect all the caterpillars I could find in order to see how they changed."
Her beautiful artistry and focus on accuracy for the scientific community are apparent in any comparison between her work and reality.
Marriage, children, and work: Maria studied and worked with her brothers and the students coming to her stepfather's school. In 1665, when she was 18, she married Johann Andreas Graff, one of her stepfather's pupils. He was born in Nuremberg in 1636 and spent 1653 to 1658 studying with Marrel. During his career, he was known as a painter, a draftsman, a copperplate engraver, and a publisher, many of those skills learned while studying and working in Frankfurt. In 1668, Maria had her first daughter, Johanna Helena, and in 1670, they moved to Nuremberg. Maria continued painting on parchment and linen, creating patterns for embroidery. She also gave drawing lessons to the daughters of the wealthy residents of Nuremberg. Besides providing extra income for her family, she was given access to the private gardens and greenhouses of the rich. Many of her paintings and designs were based on her observations in these Nuremberg gardens. She attended Sandrart's German Academy, painting flowers and making copperplate engravings. Through her artistry, she became well-known in various cultural circles. After her studies at Sandrart's, between 1675 and 1680, she published flower pattern books, entitled together as, Blumenbuch (Book of Flowers). Copies are now scarce to find. The first part, Florum Fasciculus Primus, was published in 1675. (Fasciculus means "loose leaves".) The second part, Florum Fasciculus Alter, followed in 1677, and the third part, Florum Fasciculus Tertius, in 1680. These three volumes were composed of 12 plates each. Books at this time were produced in sheets or "leaves," and a buyer could decide whether to let his copy be colored and what binding he would prefer. Merian's books were available for purchase as uncolored versions or copies hand-colored by either Merian herself or her daughters. Merian engraved all the copper plates for these three books. This accounts for her books looking quite different from each other. (She did not do all the copperplate engraving for her greatest work, the book she produced from Suriname.) Her husband was very involved and is listed as the publisher of all three books above. In 1680, a second edition of the Blumenbuch entitled Neues Blumenbuch (New Book of Flowers) was also published. This version contained all three volumes. Six complete copies of this work are known to have survived. Maria was able to produce all this work, and at the same time, in 1678, she had her second child, Dorothea Maria. Between 1678 and 1683, Maria worked on and published two volumes of her first scientific book, Der Raupen Wunderbare Verwandlung (The Wonderful Transformations of Caterpillars.) She was 32 when the first volume appeared and 36 when the second was published. Each book contained 50 plates with illustrations of insects and flowers. The text she wrote about each is equally essential for the description of the metamorphosis process provided. Johann published the first volume. However, the second was printed by another publisher and a different printer. Perhaps this indicates that their marriage was not happy and that their relationship was deteriorating.
The Labadists and Divorce: Maria lived in an era where the Protestant Reformation (1517–1648) was still a significant force, and religion motivated life and living. Her work was a testament to her God. She had embraced the Protestant faith, but her husband had not. In 1681, Maria's stepfather passed away, and the family returned to Frankfurt from Nuremberg to help her mother. By 1685, Maria made the decision to move her daughters, aged 7 and 17, along with her mother to The Netherlands to join a Labadist group. The Labadists were a radical Protestant commune named after their founder, Jean de Labadie. They believed the true church was composed solely of those "born again" or "elect" and that knowing God was not through a set of religious laws, but through personal prayer and mystical devotion; the heart should be warmed by divine love. They believed in the absolute equality of the sexes and that worldly vanities should be avoided with personal wealth shared in the community brotherhood. Significantly for Maria, the community believed the marriage must be "in the Lord"; a believer can justifiably separate from an unconverted partner in order to follow God's call to his work which in their interpretation meant their own community lifestyle (from Wikipedia). The community Maria joined was located in Friesland in Walta (also spelled Waltha or Waltham) Castle. Cornelis van Aerssen van Sommelsdijck owned this castle and offered it to the Labadists as a place to live and work. Van Sommelsdijck was the first governor of Suriname after the establishment of the Society of Suriname in 1683. He also had a collection of natural history objects that sparked Merian's interest, including butterflies from the Dutch colony of Suriname. Even though the community believed in giving up worldly goods, they did have a printing press, and Merian could continue her work while they lived in the commune. Johann, Maria's estranged husband, visited in 1686 to save their marriage and bring the family home. However, Maria reasoned that Johann did not share her faith, and according to the Labadists, their marriage was no longer valid in the eyes of God. They officially divorced in 1692. After six years with the Labadists, Maria became frustrated with the way of life in the commune because they did not value education and scientific exploration. Amsterdam: Maria's mother died in 1690, and the following year, she moved with her daughters to Amsterdam and began to build yet another new life for them. In the 1690s, Amsterdam was one of the intellectual capitals of Europe, and Maria quickly reestablished herself as an important artist and entomologist. She made money to support her family by teaching and selling her works of art. Rachel Ruysch (1664–1750), one of the most well-known flower painters, was one of her pupils for a time. Her eldest daughter, Johanna, married a merchant, and Maria was able to use his trade to collect insect specimens from the Americas. By now, both her daughters were also accomplished artists and worked with her. Maria became tired of studying only long-dead specimens that were available in Europe. She wanted to observe the entire life cycle of her subjects to understand how they interacted with the world around them ![]()
Suriname: During Maria Sibylla's lifetime, Suriname became one of several Dutch colonies, although, at that time, it was known as Dutch Guiana. Maria's early connection with Suriname through the Labadists and the first governor of Dutch Guiana, plus her son-in-law's business in South America, and her ready-made knowledge of the specimens she had already studied from there, made Suriname a natural place for her to further her studies of live specimens.
In 1699, Merian was granted permission by the city of Amsterdam to travel to Suriname. She and her youngest daughter, Dorothea, planned five years to study and illustrate species of insects they discovered there. To finance their trip, Merian had to sell most of her art and her collections. She may have received a small government grant, but it could not fully support the venture. This journey may have been private individuals' first purely scientific expedition to The Americas. The two women traveled alone and explored the South American rain forests for only two years. Ill health would drive Maria back to Europe. She and her daughter sketched insects, plants, and animals in their natural surroundings. They visited vegetable gardens, riverbanks, jungle areas, and the fields of the sugar plantations that had brought the Dutch to Suriname in the first place. One source said that Maria used the same journal for these sketches she had started when she was 13. The Dutch colonists thought she was mad and did not understand her project and its science. However, the enslaved African and Amerindian people in the city learned about her work. They began bringing her interesting plants and insects and shared what they knew about the specimens. Maria learned to speak Carib, the language used by the local Indians and Negerengels (Black English), the Dutch name for the Creole dialect developed by African slaves in the New World. Her attitude towards the enslaved people was not elaborated, but as she learned to speak their languages and as they brought her information, it could be assumed that she treated them well. Her comments about enslaved people in her book indicate that she understood their desires for freedom. Maria explained: The berries depicted on a peacock flower are used by the native women to induce abortion and ensure that they will not bear offspring destined for a life of slavery. She added that the Dutch had not treated the enslaved Angolans well and that they dreamed of an afterlife of peace and freedom in their homeland. Maria's approach is pictorial. She encapsulated a span of time into one artistic space and depicts in a single image the full spectrum of a life cycle within its ecosystem. She was the first in history to study nature through illustration and observation. Plate 45 of her Suriname book shows the peacock flower with the complete metamorphosis cycle and the berries that the native women discussed with Maria. She also looked for the exotic, and through her studies, she introduced tropical pleasures to the Dutch people back home, and below is her depiction of the pineapple that "stung" her tongue at first taste.
Return to Amsterdam: In 1701, Maria became ill with malaria, and she and her daughter were forced to return to Amsterdam. In 1705, the first edition of Metamorphosis of the Insects of Suriname was printed in a large folio format, containing 60 full-page engraved plates. The text on the facing page describes each plate. A deluxe version was also available, hand-painted by Maria and her daughters. If the reproductions faced the same way as the original paintings, she used the counterproof technique of pulling a print from the copperplate engraving. One print is taken, and another passed through immediately, which gives a copy in reverse. This explains why other reproductions are the reverse of the originals.
Plant and animal specimens were described with native and Latin names when they were known. Maria's illustrations were not still-life paintings or landscape art. She wanted to represent reality as her eyes saw it, faithfully and intelligently. She also documented the use and preparation of insects, frogs, plants, and flowers for food and medicine from first-hand observation and testimony of South American women who used these traditional methods to care for their families. As with most women trying to make a mark on their societies in these years, Merian was ignored or not given much credit for her immense contribution to both artistic and scientific communities. In 1669, The Italian biologist Marcello Malpighi (1628–1694) announced his discovery of the metamorphosis of silkworms into moths, even though it was the first entry in the journal of a thirteen-year-old, Maria Sibylla Merian, a decade earlier. Regardless, following the second edition of her Suriname book, her work formed the indispensable foundation for all entomological research, and her revolutionary approach was made popular by the taxonomist Carl Linnaeus---but not until half a century later. Maria never fully recovered from malaria, and in 1715, she suffered a stroke that prevented her from fully working again. She died in 1717, and due to her daughters' continued work and care for their mother's contributions, she achieved the recognition she deserved. Fun Facts: Entomology did not become a distinct field of science until the 19th century. Over 1.3 million insect species have been described, more than two-thirds of all known species. Some insect species date back to about 400 million years ago. They have many kinds of interactions with humans and other forms of life on Earth. Like Maria, early Europeans desired to collect "things,' and many kept "cabinets of curiosity." This fashion led to the formation of natural history societies, private showings, and the exchange of information, which led to more serious studies and eventually to the development of the professional entomologist. These people contributed to the rise of universities and training in biology. Notables in the 19th-century increase in interest in the field were Charles Darwin, Jean-Henri Fabre, Vladimir Nabokov, and Karl von Frisch, who won the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine. Maria Sibylla Merian's name is now part, as it should be, of the annals of the field of entomology. Her two talents, illustration art and science, have enhanced any study to this day.
Written by Carol Morse
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