A Space of Their Own

Maria Sibylla Merian

April 2, 1647 – January 13, 1717

Active in: Germany, the Netherlands, and Suriname

Biography

Maria Sibylla Merian is renowned for her botanical illustrations of European flora and fauna, as well as those she encountered in Dutch Suriname. She was born in Frankfurt am Main in 1647. In 1665, Merian married the painter Johann Andreas Graff.

Her first book of natural illustrations was published in 1675, and she produced a volume on caterpillars in 1679. After many relocations to tend to sick family members, as well as a stint in a Labadist community in Friesland, Merian’s husband divorced her in 1692. In 1699, she journeyed to Dutch Suriname, where she stayed until malaria forced her to return to the Dutch Republic in 1701. Merian died in Amsterdam in 1717, after a long career filled with numerous publications of insects, plants, and other natural illustrations.

Selected Works

A bright red bird with red legs and feet, a long, curved black beak, and black tips on its wings is shown from a side profile view. Behind it, a large white egg is also shown.

Maria Sibylla Merian, Scarlet Ibis with an Egg, 1699–1700. Deck paint and gouache on parchment, 42.1 x 30.8 cm. Rijkmuseum

A green striped squash plant with its curling vines and leaves takes up most of the image, with a slice cut out of the length of the squash to show the seeds and flesh inside. A large caterpillar that is blue on either end and green in the middle, with red and yellow tufts at both ends, is one side of the squash. A large brownish-gray moth is on one of the squash vines.

Maria Sibylla Merian, Watermelon with Caterpillar and Moth, 1705. Watercolor touched with bodycolor and with pen and gray ink on vellum, 36.8 x 28.6 cm. British Museum

Two different plants are shown side by side. On the right is a green stem with yellow, slightly wavy flowers and three thin green leaves. On the left is a brown stem with rounder green leaves and two white flowers. A red beetle has landed on one of the leaves near the flowers.

Maria Sibylla Merian, Study of Capers, Gorse, and a Beetle, 1693. Watercolor with white gouache on vellum, 35.5 x 26.2 cm. Metropolitan Museum of Art

The image shows three different views of frogs at the top, the largest and topmost one with spots, the second-biggest with a few stripes, and the smallest a lighter green with fewer spots. Below them, a long curving flower stem with small blue flowers along its length splits top of the page from the bottom. Below the flower border, illustrations show the physical changes of tadpoles into frogs.

Maria Sibylla Merian, Metamorphosis of a Frog and Blue Flower, ca. 1701–05. Watercolor and bodycolor on paper, 30.48 x 26.67 cm. Minneapolis Institute of Art

A bright yellow bird with black spot all along its body, black wing tips, and a small curved black beak stands next to a brownish butterfly with an eye-like pattern on its wings. Above them both, a much smaller bright blue butterfly is in the air.

Maria Sibylla Merian, Golden Plover with Examples of Two Butterflies, 1701–05. Watercolor touched with bodycolor and with pen and gray ink on vellum, 35.5 x 30.2 cm. British Museum

Continue Exploring

View artist timeline
Selected works
 

Circle

Daughter of
Matthäus Merian

Step-daughter of
Jacob Marrel

Bibliography

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Brafman, D., and S. Schrader. Insects and Flowers: The Art of Maria Sibylla Merian. Los Angeles, 2008.

Cristini, Luca Stefano. Flowers, butterflies, insects, caterpillars and serpents…: From the superb engravings of Sibylla Merian and Moses Hariss. Zanica: Soldiershop Publishing, 2014.

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