Object data
opaque and transparent watercolour, over traces of graphite, on vellum
height 290 mm × width 225 mm
Maria Sibylla Merian (attributed to)
Blue Morpho Butterfly on a Yellow Flower
1696
Inscriptions
-
signed by the artist (?): lower left (with the sheet turned 90 degrees), in brown ink, M (…) Sibilla Merian
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inscribed on verso: lower right, in a seventeenth-century hand, in brown ink, 2 Schone Surinaamsche Capellen; upper right, possibly by Agnes Block, in brown ink, Aster viccides Africanus / fl. Luteo Capp. de Bona / s. ficoydes Ayzoyoes Latifolia . 169(…)/ uyt Saat vande Capo bona’ Spoii; lower left, by Johan Edler Goll van Franckenstein, in brown ink, N 705 (L. 2987)
Condition
Stains in the centre of the sheet; blurring of the stems lower left
Provenance
…; Johann Edler Goll von Franckenstein (1722-1785), Amsterdam and Velsen (L. 2987); his son, Jonkheer Johan Goll van Franckenstein (1756-1821), Amsterdam and Velsen; his son, Jonkheer Pieter Hendrik Goll van Franckenstein (1787-1832), Amsterdam and Velsen; sale, Jonkheer Johan Goll van Franckenstein , Amsterdam (J. de Vries et al.), 1 July 1833 sqq., Album B, no. 14 (‘Twee stuks Bladen. Als voren, door M.S. Merian’), fl. 6 to the dealer J.N. Hulswit, Amsterdam;1 …; from F.J. Tilburgs (possibly Franciscus Johannes Cornelus Tilburgs (1885-?)), The Hague, fl. 250, to the museum (L.2228), 1947
Object number: RP-T-1947-214
Copyright: Public domain
Context
Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717) – a woman ahead of her time – was one of the earliest entomologists, who dedicated her life to the study of butterflies, insects and plants. Her publications on the metamorphoses of caterpillars (1679; 1683; 1713-1717) and the insects of Suriname (1705) were celebrated for their accuracy and brought new standards to scientific illustrations. She ran a successful workshop together with her daughters, Johanna Helena Herolt (née Graff; 1668-1723) and Dorothea Maria Gsell (née Graff; 1678-1743), whose roles in her artistic output and the sale of her books, art works and specimens have received increasing scholarly attention in recent years. Considering Merian’s large existing oeuvre, the assistance of Johanna Helena and Dorothea Maria seems evident. They were mainly involved with the preparation of her publications. Dorothea Maria published the third caterpillar book after her mother’s death. Several drawn sheets, likely based on workshop models, were (partially) made by the daughters and sold under Maria Sibylla’s name. In 2008, an attempt is made to differentiate their hands.2
Carolyn Mensing, 2020
The artist
Maria Sibylla Merian (Frankfurt-am-Main 1647 - Amsterdam 1717)
She grew up in a family of artists in Frankfurt.3 Her father, the artist and publisher Matthäus Sibylla Merian (1593-1650), died when she was three years old.4 In 1651, Maria’s mother, Johanna Sibylla (?-1691), remarried flower painter Jacob Marrel (c. 1613/14-1681). Maria Sibylla was trained in his studio. At age thirteen, she devoted most of her time to studying and drawing the metamorphoses of caterpillars.5
In 1665, Maria Sibylla married an apprentice of her stepfather, Johann Andreas Graff (1637-1701). They had two daughters, Johanna Helena Graff (1668-1723) and Dorothea Maria Graff (1678–1743). In 1668, they moved to Nuremberg, where Graff, with the help of Maria Sibylla, set up a successful printing studio. Maria Sibylla continued making art: flower paintings on vellum, silk and linen, and she decorated tablecloths with birds and butterflies.6. She also taught women to draw. In 1675, Maria Sibylla and Johann Graff published a book of flowers, the Blumenbuch. It was meant as a teaching aid or could be used as a pattern-book for drawing and embroidering. The second and third volumes appeared in 1677 and 1680.7
Maria Sibylla also continued to study insects with the intention of publishing her findings in an illustrated book. The first edition of Caterpillars: Their Wondrous Transformation and Peculiar Nourishment from Flowers (Der Raupen wunderbare Verwandelung und sonderbare Blumennahrung), was published in 1679. The second volume followed four years later, in 1683. Foremost scientific publications, they include detailed descriptions and illustrations of the metamorphosis of caterpillars. The depiction of their life cycle, from egg to butterfly on their host plant, was imitated by artists well into the nineteenth century. The caterpillar books were sold in uncoloured, coloured and counterproof editions.8
In 1681, upon the death of Maria Sybilla’s stepfather, Jacob Marrel, the Graff-Merian family returned to Frankfurt. In the following years, their marriage fell apart; Graff moved back to Nuremberg in 1685 and the couple officially divorced in 1691. In 1685, Maria Sybilla moved with her mother, and two daughters to Walta in Friesland, where she joined a Labadist community. There, she studied plants and insects from Suriname, brought by Labadist members who had visited the plantations in Suriname that were owned by community members. After her mother passed away in 1690, Maria Sibylla and her two daughter settled in Amsterdam and set up a workshop. A year later, her eldest daughter, Johanna Helena, married the businessman Jacob Hendrik Herolt (1660-?).
In 1699, Maria Sibylla sold all her belongings and with her youngest daughter, Dorothea Maria, embarked on a ship to Suriname to study native caterpillars, insects and plants in preparation for a publication. They settled in Paramaribo, but made regular trips to plantations of the Labadist community to catch insects. Maria Sibylla became ill, which forced the women to return to Amsterdam merely two years later. They brought with them numerous notes, sketches and dried plants and animals. A native woman came back with them as well and probably assisted with the preparation of the book. The Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium, commonly known as the ‘Suriname Book’, was published in Amsterdam in 1705. It was the first scientific illustrated account on the natural history of Suriname. The publication was funded through subscriptions for (hand-coloured) luxury editions.
By the time Maria Sibylla and her daughter returned to Amsterdam, her work was well known and respected among natural scientists. From their workshop in the Kerkstraat, she and both her daughters continued to work on several editions of the Suriname and caterpillar books, but also sold separate sheets, dried insects and specimens. For her drawings, she preferred opaque and transparent watercolour on vellum. Maria Sibylla engraved her own copper-plates with a line-and-point technique. She also produced counterproofs that were hand-coloured in the workshop.9 Maria Sibylla corresponded with important collectors such as Hans Sloane (1660-1753) and James Petiver (1665-1718), who also bought art and specimens from her. Art collector and horticulturalist Agnes Block (1629-1704) commissioned Maria Sibylla and Johanna Helena to make drawings of the plants in her gardens at her estate ‘Vijverhof’ in Loenen aan de Vecht. One of Block’s ‘Bloemenboeken’ (book of flowers) is in the Rijksmuseum collection (inv. no. RP-T-1948119).
In 1715, Maria Sibylla suffered a stroke that left her partially paralysed and unable to work. She passed away on 13 January 1717. Two weeks before she died, Dorothea Maria sold a large part of her mother’s collection, including her study book, to Robert Areskine (1677-1718), the physician and advisor to the Russian czar Peter the Great (1672-1725). This collection is now in the Academy of Sciences in St Petersburg. Further, she sold Maria Sibylla’s collection of books, printing plates and other workshop materials to bookseller Johannes Oosterwijk (?-?).10 In 1718, Dorothea moved with her second husband, the artist Georg Gsell (1673-1740), to St Petersburg. Her personal collection, consisting of her mother’s sheets as well as her own, is now in the collection of the Kunstkamera there (the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography).
Carolyn Mensing, 2020
References
A. Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, 3 vols., Amsterdam 1718-21, III (1718), pp. 220-24; A. von Wurzbach, Niederländisches Künstlerlexikon, 3 vols., Vienna/Leipzig 1906-11, II (1910), p. 158; U. Thieme and F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler: Von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, 37 vols., Leipzig 1907-50, XL (1930), p. 413 (entry by W.K. Zülch); F.G. Waller, Biografisch woordenboek van Noord Nederlandsche graveurs, The Hague 1938, p. 221; H. Gerson and B.W. Meijer (eds.), Ausbreitung und Nachwirkung der holländischen Malerei des 17. Jahrhunderts, Amsterdam 1983 (rev. ed.; orig. ed. 1942), p. 202, 263, 272, 556-57 (as M.S. Graff-Merian); E. Bergvelt, De wereld binnen handbereik. Nederlandse kunst- en rariteitenverzamelingen, 1585-1735, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Amsterdams Historisch Museum) 1992, p. 147; A. Beyer et al. (eds.), Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon: Die bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker, Munich 1992-, LXXXIX (2016), p. 145 (entry by L.H. Wuthrich); N. Zemon Davis, Women on the Margins: Three Seventeenth-century Lives, Cambridge 1995, pp. 140-202; I.N. Lebedeva, ‘De nalatenschap van Maria Sibylla Merian in Sint-Petersburg’, in R. Kistemake et al. (eds.), Peter de Grote en Holland. Culturele en wetenschappelijke betrekkingen tussen Rusland en Nederland ten tijde van tsaar Peter de Grote, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Amsterdams Historisch Museum) 1996, pp. 60-66; H. Kaiser, Maria Sibylla Merian: Eine Biographie, Düsseldorf 1997; L. Huet and J. Grieten, Oude meesteressen. Vrouwelijke kunstenaars in de Nederlanden, Leuven 1998, pp. 161-85; E. Kloek et al. (eds.), Vrouwen en kunst in de Republiek. Een overzicht, Hilversum 1998 (Utrechtse historische cahiers, vol. 19), p. 152; K. Wettengl (ed.), Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717). Kunstenares en natuuronderzoekster, exh. cat. Haarlem (Teylers Museum) 1998; E. Reitsma, with S. Ulenberg, Maria Sibilla Merian & Daughters: Women of Art and Science, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Museum Het Rembrandthuis)/Los Angeles (J. Paul Getty Museum) 2008; S. Schrader et al., ‘Naturalism under the Microscope: A Technical Study of Maria Sibylla Merian's Metamorphosis of the Insects of Surinam’, Getty Research Journal 4 (2012), pp. 161-72; C. Grabowski, Maria Sibylla Merian zwischen Malerei und Naturforschung: Pflanzen- und Schmetterlingsbilder neu entdeckt, Berlin 2017; S.B. Pomeroy and J. Kathirithamby, Maria Sibylla Merian: Artist, Scientist, Adventurer, exh. cat. Los Angeles (J. Paul Getty Museum) 2018
Johanna Helena Herolt (Nuremberg 1668 - Suriname 1723)
She was the oldest daughter of botanical artist and scientist Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717) and artist-publisher Johann Andreas Graff (1637-1701).11 She had one sister, Dorothea Maria (1678-1743), who was also an artist. She was trained by her mother and followed her to Frankfurt, Friesland and finally Amsterdam, where they set up a workshop. During their time in Amsterdam, art collector and horticulturalist Agnes Block (1629-1704) commissioned Maria Sibylla and Johanna Helena to make drawings of the plants at her estate ‘Vijverhof’ in Loenen aan de Vecht. One of Block’s ‘Bloemenboeken’ (books of flowers) is in the Rijksmuseum collection (inv. no. RP-T-1948119).
In 1692, Johanna Helena married businessman Jacob Hendrik Herolt (1660-?). She continued to work with her mother, but did not join Maria Sibylla and Dorothea Maria on their trip to Suriname in 1699. A couple of years later, however, she and her husband moved to Suriname, where Jacob obtained a post as officer of the Orphans board in Paramaribo.12 Johanna continued to collect and sell natural history specimens in Paramaribo, where she died, but it is unclear whether she continued drawing.13
Carolyn Mensing, 2020
References
U. Thieme and F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler: Von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, 37 vols., Leipzig 1907-50, XL (1930), p. 413 (under Merian, Maria Sibilla; as Herold); H. Gerson and B.W. Meijer (eds.), Ausbreitung und Nachwirkung der holländischen Malerei des 17. Jahrhunderts, Amsterdam 1983 (rev. ed.; orig. ed. 1942), p. 202 (as Johanna Helena Graff); E. Kloek et al. (eds.), Vrouwen en kunst in de Republiek. Een overzicht, Hilversum 1998 (Utrechtse historische cahiers, vol. 19), pp. 141-42 (as Graff, Johanna Helena); K. Wettengl (ed.), Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717). Kunstenares en natuuronderzoekster, exh. cat. Haarlem (Teylers Museum) 1998, passim; E. Reitsma, with S. Ulenberg, Maria Sibilla Merian & Daughters: Women of Art and Science, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Museum Het Rembrandthuis)/Los Angeles (J. Paul Getty Museum) 2008
Entry
The Blue Morpho butterfly – the name used for more than twenty-nine species of butterflies of the genus Morpho, whose males are recognizable by their blue metallic pigmentation – is found in the primary forests in South America. Maria Sibylla Merian depicted the metamorphosis of a butterfly of the same family on plate 7 of her Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium (1705).
In the present sheet, there seems to be some discrepancy in finesse between the flower, its stem and the butterfly. The butterfly is rendered with great detail, using a variety of brown tones and blue metallic paint for the wings. The ‘hairs’ of its body (which are actually scales) and the legs are painted with a very fine brush. The stems and leaves of the flower are rendered with a similar level of detail, using different shades of green and white heightening to outline their shape. On the other hand, the flowers are not as convincingly drawn and look rather messy.
The plant species could not be identified with certainty. Sam Segal identified the plant as an Lampranthus, a member of the African succulent family Mesembryanthemacaeae; however, its physiognomy seems rather different, especially the stem and leaves.14 Based on the inscription of the verso, it could also be a Ficoides Africana major procumbens triangulari, shown in Johann Weinmann’s Phytanthoza iconographia (1737-45).
Upon close inspection, a partial signature, M (…) Sibilla Merian is visible at the lower left, with the sheet turned 90 degrees. The letters seem to have been scratched into the prepared white ground of the vellum. It could not be established whether the signature is original. On the verso, two different inscriptions are included. Segal identified the handwriting of Agnes Block (1629-1704) at upper right, identifying the unknown species of the flower as the Aster Ficoides ayzoides and stating that the flower was grown from seeds from the Cape of Good Hope.15 Block commissioned several artists to paint the plants and flowers on her estate ‘Vijverhof’ in Loenen aan de Vecht, near Utrecht. These sheets were bound in albums that were later sold to Valerius Röver (1686-1739). In the 1730 inventory of his collection, several ‘konstboeken’ or albums from Block are mentioned in which drawings by Maria Sibylla and her daughter Johanna are included. Album 28 of his inventory includes the following entry: ‘4. een dito, Aster Vicoides Africanus, fl: luteo. Sive Ficoydes Ayzoides Latifolia. Waar bij 2 schoone Capellen van Jufr. Merian.’16 This might be a reference to the present sheet; however, it includes only one butterfly (‘capelle’) rather than two. That being said, the other inscription on the verso in brown ink reads ‘2 schone surinaamse capellen’ (‘two butterflies from Suriname’). Perhaps the sheet did initially include two butterflies but was trimmed at some point.
Carolyn Mensing, 2020
Literature
L.J. Bol, Bekoring van het kleine, exh. cat. Dordrecht (Dordrechts Museum)/Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1959-60, no. 64 (as Maria Sybilla Merian); L.J. Bol, Bekoring van het kleine. Nederlands kunstbezit uit openbare verzamelingen, Amsterdam n.d. [1963], p. 25, fig. 35 (as Maria Sybilla Merian); K. Wettengl (ed.), Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717). Kunstenares en natuuronderzoekster, exh. cat. Haarlem (Teylers Museum) 1998, pp. 168-69, no. 112 (as Maria Sybilla Merian)
Citation
C. Mensing, 2020, 'attributed to Maria Sibylla Merian, Blue Morpho Butterfly on a Yellow Flower, 1696', in J. Turner (ed.), Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.56046
(accessed 10 November 2024 08:46:10).