Creative Footprint: Maria Sibylla Merian and a Hundred Watercolors

"Creative Footprint" encompasses, explores and examines the ways in which we and other creatures leave marks on culture and community. Created by Marc Dennis, artist, professor, Holocaust researcher, and bug chef. 

Imagine, if you will a woman, age 52, divorced, with one of her two daughters in tow, embarking on a rather dangerous three month long trip to Surinam in the northeast region of South America.

Imagine her traveling without a male companion, trekking through the jungles, camping, observing, sketching and painting flora and fauna, with a particular focus on insects and spiders. 

And imagine she's there for two years! Two years away from friends, family and homeland.

You might think that this is really no big deal, after all it’s the twenty-first century, women travel alone and practically anyone can go anywhere with certain exceptions. But for the most part the globe is ours to trek. 

But what if I asked you to imagine this happened say, in 1693? 

Then I suppose it would indeed be a big deal. In fact it would have been somewhat unheard of at the time. But it happened. Meet Maria Sibylla Merian.

In 1693, artist Maria Sibylla Merian known for her observations that revolutionized both botany and zoology, at the age of 52, divorced with two daughters, took the astonishing step of embarking - with her younger daughter, but no male companion - on a dangerous, three-month trip to the Dutch colony of Surinam, in South America. 

 

Frankfurt in the 17th century, Copperplate engraving after Matthäus Merian the Elder

This extraordinary artist-scientist was born on April 2nd, 1647, in Frankfurt and dared to venture across the "world" to an exotic and recently explored jungle region to draw and paint her surroundings. She came from an artistic family and was for all intents and purposes fairly prepared for her expedition. 

 

Portrait of Matthaeus Merian, engraving, Public Library at the University of Neuchatel

Her father, Matthäus Merian the Elder, was a Swiss printmaker and publisher who died when she was three. It's difficult to say what sort of impact he may have had on his daughter but she did look at his engravings during her formative years with her mother's second husband, Jacob Marell. 

 

Jacob Marrel, Page from a Tulip Book, 1640, Copyright Rijksmuseum Amsterdam 

One year after the death of her fist husband, her mother married Jacob Marell, a Flemish flower painter and one of Merian's first teachers. He specialized in tulips and was a contemporary of Rembrandt and Vermeer. 

 

Maria Sibylla Merian, Flamingo, watercolor

From early childhood, Merian was interested in drawing the animals and plants she saw in her immediate environment and region. She collected, raised, and observed living insects, rather than working from preserved specimens, as was the norm for the times.

 

Maria Sibylla Merian, Plate from Metamorphosis of a Butterfly Merian, 1705

And in 1793, Merian embarked on her dangerous, three-month trip to the Dutch colony of Surinam, in South America. Her goal was to study the indigenous flora and fauna because she had grown up with dried specimens of animals and plants that were popular with European collectors and she wanted to study them up close and in the wild.

Maria Sibylla Merian, Moths on Artemisia species from “European insects”,  Plate 78, 1680

She was determined to approach the discipline of scientific illustration that was contrary to the way most scientists worked at the time. By being in the environment it would provide her with the opportunity to study, observe, and record fresh and exciting information about the secret lives of what were considered to be exotic insects, spiders, plants and flowers.

Maria Sibylla Merian, Plumaria with butterflies, larva, and pupa, “Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium,” Plate 8, 1705

Her work places her among one of the first naturalists to have observed flora and fauna in particular insects directly. I’d like to note that it was very unusual that someone, let alone a woman, would be genuinely interested in insects, because at that time they – insects, spiders and all other creepy crawlies had a bad reputation. In fact colloquially they were referred to as "beasts of the devil."

Maria Sibylla Merian, Pineapple, “Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium,”  Plate 1, 1705

As a consequence of their reputation, the metamorphosis of these animals was largely unknown, but due to Merian’s dedication to her life to understanding and visually documenting the life cycles of 186 insect species, amassing evidence that contradicted the contemporary notion that insects were "born of mud" by spontaneous generation.

 

Maria Sibylla Merian, Avicularia-avicularia, “Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium,” 1705

Merian painted over a hundred watercolors during her time in Surinam. One hundred watercolors! All of them filled with the life of the jungles of Surinam, loaded with detail, information and meaning. Forced home by malaria, she published her most significant book in 1705, which became very popular in certain sections of high society as a result of being published in the vernacular.

 

The lavishly illustrated Metamorphosis of the Insects of Surinam established her international reputation. When she returned home, sixty of them were reproduced in her book Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium (Metamorphosis of the Insects of Suriname).

 

Portrait of Maria Sibylla Merian by vom Maler de Bâle, undated

In 1715 Merian suffered a stroke and was partially paralyzed. She continued her work but died in Amsterdam on January 13, 1717. She was 70 years old. 

Plate from Erucarum Ortus Alimentum et Paradoxa Metamorphosis, 1679-1717

Her daughter Dorothea published Erucarum Ortus Alimentum et Paradoxa Metamorphosis, a collection of her mother's work, posthumously.

 

Maria Sibylla Merian, Metamorphosis, “Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium,” 1705

Historically Maria Sibylla Merian is considered to be the first to combine art and entomology. Due to her skills and creative drive, she was able to capture the translucency and elegance of butterflies wings, caterpillars in their furry graces and the hardened exoskeletons of various beetles with wonderful accuracy of hand and a trained scrutinizing eye.

Maria Sibylla Merian, A Parrot Tulip, Auriculas, and Red Currants, with a Magpie Moth, its Caterpillar and Pupa

I am inspired by her diligence, motivation and sacrifices. Making art requires time, patience, and many hours isolated in the studio with select materials and one's imagination and craft. The studio can sometimes be a lonely place. 

When one takes their creative intentions outdoors however, amidst nature, to feel their back up against a tree, the moist earth below their body, the mud heavy one one's feet, the loneliness becomes pure aloneness. 

Isolated but very much alive with your surroundings. working directly from nature requires a different attitude, a fresh outlook because anything can happen and preparedness may not be enough. Exploration and experimentation take on a new meaning. 

Due to her ambitions and courage she also succeeded in discovering a range of previously unknown animals and plants in the interior of Surinam. Her perseverance albeit largely forgotten for over three hundred years was reborn in recent times like a soulful chrysalis waiting to be released.

 

Her portrait was printed on the 500 DM note before Germany converted to the euro. 

 

Her portrait appeared on a 0.40 DM stamp, released on September 17, 1987, and many schools throughout Germany were named after her. 

 

And last but not least, in 2005, a modern research vessel named The Maria S. Merian was launched at Warnemunde, Germany, enabling her spirit, if you will to venture forth and discover anew in the modern world. 

 

You may contact Marc Dennis here.

 

Comments

[Laura]

Marc, this is fascinating! I'm going to send the link to our German friends - I'm curious about what they know about her. Insects are great and all, but I'm partial to the flamingo. It reminds me of something out of Alice in Wonderland....

[Correy Dukes]

You may have noticed a typo..If Merian was born in 1647, she would be 146 years of age at the year in which you state she traveled to Surinam (1793). Her death was actually recorded in 1717. :) In addition to this correction, I must say that your writing demonstrates an obvious admiration for the artist, to which I agree!

[Leo]

Incredible, she was very accomplished, why is she not more well known. Her studies of insects such as butterfies most be historially useful.

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