Maria Sibylla Merian (1647–1717) - Groseille de jardin - Ribes nero Originale

Garden Currant
Representation of a butterfly's life cycle on a branch of black currant. The eggs, the larva, the pupa, and the adult butterfly are visible.

The French name of the plant is shown in the bottom right corner.
Plate XXIX from the work: Histoire des insectes de l'Europe, 1730

The work of the engraver and naturalist Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717). Plate from the first volume of the work published for the first time in Frankfurt on the Main in 1683: Der Raupen wunderbare Verwandelung......
Here is a later impression with the Latin numbering used for the first time in the work published by Bernard in Amsterdam in 1730: Histoire des insectes de l`Europe.

On laid paper. In excellent conservation state with a margin around the sheet irregularly wide. Minimally browned from an old passe-partout mounting. The antique coloration is slightly faded but still sharp.

Maria Sibylla Merian (1647 – 1717) was a German artist and entomologist who studied plants and insects, creating detailed drawings. As far as we know, she was the first to draw insects together with the plant on which they feed.

In 1699 the naturalist and artist Maria Sibylla Merian undertakes the first scientific journey ever undertaken by a woman and, upon arriving in the Dutch colony of Suriname, dedicates the following two years to documenting the life cycle of tropical butterflies. Merian followed the guidance of the inhabitants of the local communities and refined her method of study. Her keen eye as a draughtswoman soon allowed her to understand that insects, at the time considered demonic beings, are in fact creatures capable of fascinating transformations. From that moment their metamorphoses become the sole subject of her artistic practice.

Maria Sibylla Merian is today remembered as one of the most important scientists of the Enlightenment.