The 17th- and early 18th-century artist and naturalist Maria Sibylla Merian was a remarkably self-reliant woman of diverse talents. The story of her life is by no means typical for her time. Born the daughter of the renowned publisher Matthaus Merian the Elder in Frankfurt am Main in 1647, she spent the most important phases of her life in Frankfurt, Nurnberg, in a Labadist community in West Friesland and in the cosmopolitan city of Amsterdam. In 1699 she embarked in the company of her daughter Dorothea on a dangerous voyage to the Dutch colony of Surinam to study the world of exotic butterflies.

  This book is the first comprehensive monograph publication on Maria Sibylla Merian's oeuvre since Elisabeth Rucker's ground-breaking studies. Her life's work is examined from the viewpoints of art and the natural sciences but also with respect to the accomplishments as a businesswoman that have made her a figure of identification in the literature of feminism, which is also subjected to critical scrutiny here. With nearly 200 illustrations, including a selection of her magnificent water-colours and her Studienbuch (both in the possession of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences and virtually inaccessible for many years) as well as translations of all known surviving letters, this volume provides a wealth of material on the life and work of a truly extraordinary artist.

Introduction

Maria Sibylla Merian. Artist and Naturalist between Frankfurt and Surinam

Catalogue Part 1 Frankfurt

The Raupenbuch. A Popular Natural History

Maria Sibylla Merian as a Flower Painter

"Human Life is Like a Flower". Maria Sibylla Merian's Stammbuch Water-Colours

Catalogue Part 2 Nuirnberg, Frankfurt, Waltha Castle

Art, Commerce, Passion and Science

Catalogue Part 3 Amsterdam

Metamorphoses - Maria Sibylla Merian

Metamorphoses of Perspective. "Merian" as a Subject of Feminist Discourse

Catalogue Part 4 Surinam, Amsterdam

Maria Sibylla Merian. Businesswoman and Publisher

Letters

Bibliography