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Branch with fruit, caterpillars and a butterfly - M.S. Merian, 1726. 33x26cm (sheet size: 48.5x33 cm), old coloured. Plate 43, engraved by P. Sluyter from: Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium. The Hague, 1726.

Maria Sibylla Merian, born in Frankfurt in 1647, studied miniature-painting under Abr. Mignon. After divorcing her husband, she lived in Amsterdam with her two daughters and there became interested in the collection of tropical insects of H. van Sommerdyck. Thus she decided to go to Surinam, with a daughter, Dorothea, to paint insects. She spent two years there (1699-1701) and returned with a quantity of lovely designs combining insects in their various states with flowers and plants. Later her daughter, Johanna, went out to Surinam, to complete the work, but the mother died, in January 1717, before the additional 12 plates were published in the edition of 1719. The lady is immortalized in her handsome books. "The plates have delighted many, with their exotic leaves, blossoms, and fruits, invariably infested with caterpillars and explored by hovering butterflies and moths; ..." (Hunt, Catalogue of Botanical Books).
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Item number: 17945
Price: 1100 Euro

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