Maria Sibylla Merian (1647 - 1717) - Woman of Art and Science
Maria Sibylla Merian was a Naturalist and Botanical Illustrator and is rated as being one of the greatest ever botanical artists. This site will be of interest to all botanical artists and all those who enjoy botanical art and natural history.
This site includes links to biographies and books about her life and work. Plus online galleries and exhibitions which display her work.
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Biography of Maria Sibylla Merian
- Maria Sibylla Merian
- A biography of Maria Sibylla Merian - with links to reference sites
- Natural History Exhibit Chronological Tour - Maria Sibylla Merian
- Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717) learned to paint from her stepfather, the still life artist Jacob Marrel.
She was interested in flowers and insects from an early age, and published books of her paintings, showing insects in different stages of their development, - Maria Sibylla Merian, a Gift Person essay by Linda Fisher
- Artist and Entomologist (1647-1717) "Not for my own glory, but for the glory of God alone, who created such wonders."
- National Museum of Womenin the Arts - Maria sibylla Merian
- Artist Profile
Artist Portfolio
Maria Sibylla Merian German - Maria Sibylla Merian - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Maria Sibylla Merian (born April 2, 1647 in Frankfurt - died January 13, 1717 in Amsterdam) was a naturalist and scientific illustrator who studied plants and insects and made detailed paintings about them. Her detailed observations and documentation of the metamorphosis of the butterfly make her a significant, albeit not well known, contributor to entomology.
- Maria Sibylla Merian artist - naturalist | Magazine Antiques | Find Articles at BNET.com
- Maria Sibylla Merian artist - naturalist
Article about Merian and her work in Magazine Antiques in Home & Garden (2000)
provided free by Find Articles. - Maria Sibylla Merian: Biography from Answers.com
- Maria Sibylla Merian ( b Frankfurt am Main, 2 April 1647; d Amsterdam, 13 Jan 1717).
Maria Sibylla Merian and Daughters: Women of Art and Science
by Ella Reitsma
After more than fifteen years of marriage to a fellow artist and the birth of two daughters, Merian left her husband. She began to support herself by selling watercolors of insects, fruit, and flowers, eventually establishing an art business in Amsterdam with her daughters, Johanna Helen and
Dorothea Maria.
Merian's innovative compositional style--displaying the life cycle of an insect against the background of its host plant--developed out of her own careful and painstakingly recorded observations of insect metamorphoses.
Maria Sibylla Merian and Daughters: Women of Art and Science
Amazon Price: $29.67 (as of 10/06/2008)
List Price: $44.95
Ella Rietsma is the first author to attempt to separate Merian's work from that of her two daughters, who collaborated extensively with their mother.
Reitsma also includes newly discovered drawings and fresh biographical details.
This book - published by Getty Publications (June 15, 2008) - coincides with an exhibition of Merian's work on view at the J. Paul Getty Museum from June 10 through August 31, 2008.
Release Date: 12/31/1969
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Exhibitions of Maria Sibylla Merian's work
- Royal Collection - Amazing Rare Things
- Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717) was one of the greatest artist-naturalists of her time.
From childhood she had been fascinated by the life cycles of butterflies, and she made a close study of their transformations. She became a flower-painter and teacher in Nuremberg, Frankfurt and Amsterdam.
Inspired by exotic specimens imported from the Dutch colonies for the natural history collections of Holland, in 1699, at the age of fifty-two, Merian made an expedition to Surinam (Dutch Guiana) in South America. Her aim was to study the indigenous flora and fauna in their tropical habitat. On her return to Amsterdam two years later, she began work on a lavishly illustrated book, the Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium ('The Metamorphoses of the Insects of Surinam', published in 1705), depicting the life cycles of the region's insects.
The exhibition includes de luxe watercolours (painted on vellum) of the plates of the Metamorphosis. The 95 watercolours by Merian in the Royal Collection were bought in 1755 by George III, when Prince of Wales. - Getty Center: Maria Sibylla Merian & Daughters: Women of Art and Science
- Maria Sibylla Merian & Daughters: Women of Art and Science
June 10-August 31, 2008
This is the first major exhibition of Merian's work in America.
Maria Sibylla Merian (German, 1647-1717) was a pioneering woman of art, science, and business. She was an accomplished painter of flowers and insects and an entomologist from an early age. In her fifties, she traveled to Suriname, then a Dutch colony in South America, to study extraordinary insects first hand. Working with her two daughters, Merian made and produced one of the greatest illustrated natural history books of all time, The Insects of Suriname. This exhibition introduces Maria Sibylla Merian to American audiences and focuses on natural history illustration, which is one of the most accessible and engaging art forms. Co-organized by the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Museum Het Rembrandthuis, the exhibition travels to Los Angeles after its presentation in Amsterdam and is accompanied by a fully-illustrated catalogue. - Merian and Daughters: Women of Art and Science (Getty Center Exhibitions)
- Exhibition slideshow
- Maria Sibylla Merian & Daughters (Getty Press Release)
- February 20, 2008 press release announcing the Merian exhibition at the Getty Museum. Contains details about both Merian, her work and the exhibition
- Making a Mark: Maria Sibylla Merian - at the Getty Museum, Buckingham Palace and Kew Gardens
- Maria Sibylla Merian was both a Naturalist and a Botanical Illustrator. She's rated as being one of the greatest ever artists of botanical and entomological subjects. Her profile has never been higher - and she currently features significantly in three major exhibitions in the USA and London.
Online galleries of the work of Maria Sibylla Merian
- WOMEN AND NATURE: Maria Sibylla Merian
- WOMEN & NATURE exhibition 2001
Department of Special Collections, Memorial Library, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Maria Sibylla Merian. Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium. Hamburg: Hoffman und Campe Verlag, 1964. - Galerie Anna Sibylla Merian
- Kupferstiche von Maria Sibylla Merian
- Maria Sibylla Merian - artist portfolio
- Artist Portfolio - Maria Sibylla Merian
- Anna Sibylla Merian "Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium"
- Kupferstiche von Maria Sibylla Merian
- Galerie Anna Sibylla Merian - Neues Blumenbuch
- Kupferstiche von Maria Sibylla Merian
- Maria Sibylla Merian Online
- Maria Sibylla Merian [German Baroque Era Illustrator, 1647-1717] Guide to pictures of works by Maria Sibylla Merian in art museum sites and image archives worldwide.
- British Museum - Maria Sibylla Merian, A Surinam caiman fighting a South American false coral snake, a drawing
- Maria Sibylla Merian, A Surinam caiman fighting a South American false coral snake, a drawing
BOOKS: About or by Maria Sibylla Merian
books on Amazon
Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis
Amazon Price: (as of 10/06/2008)
Merian's Antique Botanical Prints CD-ROM and Book (Pictorial Archives)
Amazon Price: $11.53 (as of 10/06/2008)
Flowers, Butterflies and Insects: All 154 Engravings from "Erucarum Ortus" (Dover Pictorial Archive Series)
Amazon Price: $10.17 (as of 10/06/2008)
Maria Sibylla Merian: New Book of Flowers (Minis)
Amazon Price: $7.95 (as of 10/06/2008)
Maria Sibylla Merian: Artist And Naturalist
Amazon Price: (as of 10/06/2008)
Making A Mark
Katherine Tyrrell's blog about: - Making marks with pastels, pencils and pen and ink - Creating new drawings and paintings - Influences on developing both artwork and art careers - Interviews with artists - Information about resources for artists and art lovers ....and best viewed in Firefox
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