My cousin recently purchased a book by Maria Sibylla Merian (April 2, 1647 – January 13, 1717), a German naturalist and botanic illustrator. I'd never heard of this artist, and as I browsed through the book's pages I was quickly impressed and enamored with her engravings. Merian spent two years traveling the then-Dutch colony of Surinam, sketching the exotic fauna and flora of its interior rain forests. In 1705, she published her third book Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium, collecting her engravings (based on her watercolor sketches) from her time abroad. Merian's careful chronicling of the life cycle of caterpillars and butterflies greatly contributed to entomology. This went against the prevailing opinion of the day, as it was commonly thought insects "spontaneously generated out of rotting mud". Her trip to Surinam in and of itself is also noteworthy, as not many women in the 1700s sailed across the seas without the company of a man to explore the New World colonies.
The following illustrations are a few of my many favorites from her third book. Her attention to detail, use of color and compositions are superb. I'd really love to see the original sketches behind these masterful engravings.
More information on Maria Sibylla Merian can be found here and here.
