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Prickly Custard Apple with Hawkmoth and Tussock or Flannel Moth 1702-03

© Royal Collection Trust | All Rights Reserved

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Date

1702-03

Artist

Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717)

Collection

Royal Collection Trust

Image Link

https://www.rct.uk/collection/921168

Description

A watercolour of a branch of Prickly Custard Apple (Annona muricata) with a caterpillar of the Giant Sphinx Moth (Cocytius antaeus) an unidentified species of Sphinx Moth (Manduca sp.) in flight and an unidentified moth (Thagona sp. or Norape sp.) resting on a leaf. This is a version of plate 14 in Merian's Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium.
Maria Sibylla Merian was the daughter of the printmaker Matthias Merian, and the step-daughter of the still-life painter Jacob Marrel. She was a talented artist, who was trained in flower painting by Marrel. From an early age, she was fascinated by insects and their life cycles, and undertook research into the phenomenon of metamorphosis, which was then only partially understood. She published her findings in a series of books, illustrated with beautifully-composed plates in which each insect life-cycle was illustrated on the appropriate food plant. In 1699, having encountered exotic insects in the cabinets of natural history collectors in Amsterdam, Merian and her younger daughter Dorothea set sail for Suriname, in South America, which was then a Dutch colony. There, they studied the life cycles of Surinamese insects until their return to Europe in 1701. Merian published her Surinamese research as the Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium (The Metamorphosis of the Insects of Suriname) in 1705. The book was very well-received, and by her death Merian was well-regarded throughout Europe as both an entomologist and an artist.
This is one of a set of luxury versions of the plates from Merian's Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium, published in Amsterdam in 1705. The outlines of this drawing were printed from the etched plate before it was completed.
Alternate title: 'Watercolour related to plate 14 of the Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium'
Descriptive Medium: 'Watercolour and bodycolour with gum arabic over lightly etched outlines on vellum', 'watercolour, bodycolour, vellum, gum arabic', 'etched outlines'

Image Licence

All Rights Reserved

Image Credit

© Royal Collection Trust

Location

Suriname

Country

Medium

Tags

Fruits
Insects

Category

Glossary
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© 2024 Watercolour World | Technology by The Museum Platform

© 2024 Watercolour World | Technology by The Museum Platform