Maria Sibylla Merian (1647–1717)

• Was a German entomologist, naturalist and scientific illustrator.
• Born April 2, 1647, Frankfurt am Main.
• Merian's father was the Swiss engraver and publisher Matthäus Merian the Elder Merian.
• Maria received her artistic training from her stepfather, Jacob Marrel.
• Merian published her first book of natural illustrations in 1675.
• She had started to collect insects as an adolescent.
• At age 13, she raised silkworms.
• In 1679, Merian published the first volume of a two-volume series on caterpillars.
• Each volume contained 50 plates that she engraved and etched.
• Merian travelled to Dutch Guiana to study and record the tropical insects native to the region.
• In 1705, she published Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium.
• She discovered many new facts about insect life through her studies.
• In June 1701 an illness, possibly malaria, forced her to return to the Dutch Republic.
• She died in Amsterdam on 13 January 1717.
• The displayed painting is  a crop from Jacob Houbraken, after Georg Gsell, Portrait of Maria Sibylla Merian, 1708 - 1780.
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