Maria Sibylla Merian & daughters : women of art and science
(Book)

Published to accompany an exhibition at the Rembrandt House Museum, Amsterdam, Feb. 23-May 18, 2008, and at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, Jun. 10-Aug. 31, 2008.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 249-254) and index.

"With a single hair of the brush, Maria Sibylla Merian could convey the delicate wings of a butterfly, the minute bristles on a caterpillar, or a gleaming pupa with the insect just emerging. No other artist of her day could rival the brilliance and accuracy of her work. Queen Elizabeth II and the British Museum in London own many splendid works - reproduced in this book - by this German artist. Born in 1647 in Frankfurt, then the center of the publishing trade, Merian spent more than twenty-five years of her life in Amsterdam, where she died in 1717. Acknowledged and respected by artists and scientists alike, Maria Sibylla was a strong-minded, adventurous woman who, at the age of fifty-two, traveled to Suriname with her younger daughter to observe and draw insects, reptiles, and amphibians." "Ella Reitsma is the first to endeavour to distinguish between the hands of Maria Sibylla and her two daughters, Johanna Helena and Dorothea Maria. The author's research suggests that the two young women collaborated closely with their mother in the family business. Ella Reitsma has identified some of Merian's previously unknown contacts and connections, discovered new drawings, and unearthed new biographical information. The book, a lively and very readable blend of art journalism and science, is being published in conjunction with an exhibition of the work of Merian and her daughters at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles."--Jacket