A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Merian, Maria Sibylla
MERIAN, MARIA SIBYLLA,
A German artist, was born at Frankfort in 1647. She was the daughter of Matthew Merian, a celebrated engraver and topographer. Miss Merian became a pupil of Abraham Mingon, from whom she learned great neatness of handling, and delicacy of colour. She painted from nature, reptiles, flowers, and insects, which she studied with the most curious and minute observation. She frequently painted her subjects in water-colours on vellum, and finished an astonishing number of designs. She drew flies and caterpillars in all the variety of changes and forms in which they successively appear. She even undertook a voyage to Surinam to paint those insects and reptiles which were peculiar to that climate; and, on her return, published two volumes of engravings after her designs. Her works arc still referred to by writers on entomology. She died at Amsterdam, in 1717.