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Maria Sibylla Merian

By (author) Catherine Powell-Warren

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In 1679, the commentator Joachim von Sandrart described Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717) as a painter who had perfected the art of the miniature and of flower painting, a high and deserved honour. Posthumously, however, it is Merianâ€™s status as an entomologist or naturalist that has garnered the most attention; she has not received her due as an artist. This book remedies this situation and assists the reader in understanding Merianâ€™s life as a woman and as an artist in the early modern Dutch Republic. Using Merianâ€™s hundreds of extant watercolours and book illustrations as sources, in combination with her surviving correspondence and with contemporary art treatises, Catherine Powell-Warren recognizes the artistic contributions of Maria Sibylla Merian, and situates them in their socio-cultural and creative context. This book is the first to consider Merian's art and art-historical significance: her artistic range; her techniques; the rich visual rhetoric she deployed in her works; and her innovations. Merian may not have been a guild member, but she was for all intents and purposes the head of a for-profit business (a 'master'), seeing to the training of her daughters and managing a successful workshop, publishing her works, and networking to secure patrons and resources. Considering the impediments she faced as a woman, her achievements as an artist, as well as in other realms, can be considered noteworthy and perhaps even extraordinary.