Born: 2 April 1647, Germany
Died: 13 January 1717
Country most active: The Netherlands
Also known as: Maria Graff
The following is excerpted from “400 Outstanding Women of the World and the Costumology of Their Time” by Minna Moscherosch Schmidt, published in 1933.
Her father was the famous etcher of Basle, Mathaus Merian. He died in her early youth, not without, however, having instilled in his small daughter a deep love for painting and drawing. She studied Latin and Abraham Mignon instructed her in painting and drawing flowers, butterflies and insects.
In 1679, she published her first book, The Caterpillar and its Flower Food. In 1683, the second book, Erncarum Artns Alimentum et Paradoxa Metamorphosis was published. Through it she made many friends among the intelligensia. In 1699, she travelled to Holland where she was furnished financial support for an expedition to South Africa for the purpose of studying the insects in Surninam.
The Latin edition of the work (containing uncoloured copperplates) following this expedition is still highly regarded for its careful research and keen observation. Little else is known of the private life of Maria Merian as she kept no records nor diary.
The following is excerpted from A Cyclopædia of Female Biography, published 1857 by Groomsbridge and Sons and edited by Henry Gardiner Adams.
MERIAN, MARIA SIBYLLA, A German artist, was born at Frankfort in 1647. She was the daughter of Matthew Merian, a celebrated engraver and topographer. Miss Merian became a pupil of Abraham Mingon, from whom she learned great neatness of handling, and delicacy of colour. She painted from nature, reptiles, flowers, and insects, which she studied with the most curious and minute observation. She frequently painted her subjects in water-colours on vellum, and finished an astonishing number of designs. She drew flies and caterpillars in all the variety of changes and forms in which they successively appear. She even undertook a voyage to Surinam to paint those insects and reptiles which were peculiar to that climate; and, on her return, published two volumes of engravings after her designs. Her works arc still referred to by writers on entomology. She died at Amsterdam, in 1717.
Read more (Wikipedia)
Read more (Women & the American Story)
Read more (The Conversation)