Discover watercolorist, print artist, painter Maria Sibylla Merian

Name variations

This field records and makes accessible name variations, as found in sources. Alternate spellings, nicknames, maiden names - with or without the married name - are included in this category.

: Graff, Maria Sibylla

Qualifications: watercolorist, print artist, painter, draftsperson

Nationality/school: North Netherlandish, German

Born: Frankfurt am Main (city) 1647-04-02
Houbraken 1721; baptized on 4 April 1647

Deceased: Amsterdam (city) 1717-01-13
Houbraken 1721

Family relationships this field records any family relationship to one or more other artist(s).: daughter of Matthias Merian I; half-sister of Matthias Merian II; stepdaughter of Jacob Marrel; mother of Dorothea Maria Gsell and Johanna Helena Herolt; wife of Johann Andreas Graff (marriage in Frankfurt 16 May 1665 [Houbraken 1721], left her husband in 1685).

See also In this field, you will find references to names of groups or to the artists that made/make up groups. You may also come across references to other artists if there was/is question of collaboration without a joint name. This is the case, for instance, with artists who rendered parts of works by other artists (such as with P.P Rubens and J. Brueghel I).

This person/entity in other databases

878 hits in RKDimages as artist
66 hits in RKDlibrary as subject
5 hits in RKDlibrary as author
2 hits in RKDlibrary as illustrator
304 hits in RKDexcerpts as artist

Suggested searches in RKDartists&

Biographical information

Active in

Frankfurt am Main (stad) 1660 - 1670
Neurenberg 1670 - 1681
Frankfurt am Main (stad) 1681 - 1685
Wieuwerd 1685 - 1690
c. 1685-1690; with a sect (labadists) in the Waltha castle with her daughters; she had left her husband
Amsterdam (stad) 1690 - 1699
Suriname 1699 - 1701
together with Dorothea Maria
Amsterdam (stad) 1701 - 1717
became paralized in 1715 and was taken care of by her daughter Dorothea Maria (Lebedeva 1997)

born in

active in

died in

Connections with other artists

Pupil of This field mentions the names of teachers or masters. What is at issue are the teachers who made a significant contribution to the development of a students, as opposed to every instructor they ever had. See also the 'Education' field.: Marrel, Jacob
Mignon, Abraham
Teacher of This field mentions the names of pupils. What is at issue are the pupils who were significantly influenced by a teacher as opposed to every student someone ever had. See also the 'Education' field.: Gsell, Dorothea Maria Henrietta
Herolt, Johanna Helena
Followed by This field mentions the artist’s emulators. Although students can naturally also be followers, they are not mentioned again here. What is meant by followers are those who continue to work in the spirit of a predecessor. Sometimes this may happen a century later; there is no time limit. What is at issue, however, is that someone’s oeuvre must substantially follow in the manner of the artist emulated.: Panhuys, Louise von
Influence on This field specifies the artists influenced by the artist in question, without there being question of an educational setting or servile following.: Dietzsch, Barbara Regina

Subjects This field specifies the various subject categories or genres that constitute the oeuvre of the artist in question. The contents of this field are generally based more on the documentation available at the RKD than on the literature.: still life, botanical representation, portrait, flower piece, study of insects

Medium/technique: oil paint

Literature

Literature in RKDLibrary: 66 hits in RKDlibrary as subject
5 hits in RKDlibrary as author

Houbraken 1718-1721 , vol. 3 (1721), p. 220-224 (as: Maria Sybille Merian)
Gwinner 1862 , p. 168
Van der Aa 1852-1878 , vol. 12, 1 (1869), p. 634-636 (as: Maria Sibylla Merian)
Von Wurzbach 1906-1911 , vol. 2 (1910), p. 146
Thieme/Becker 1907-1950 , vol. 24 (1930), p. 413
Waller 1938/1974 , p. 221
Gerson 1942/1983 , p. 202, 263, 272, 556-557 (as: M.S. Graff-Merian)
Witt Checklist 1978 , p. 206 (as: Merian, Maria Sybilla (Graff), German)
Bergvelt/Kistemaker 1992 , passim
Huet/Grieten 1998 , p. 161-185
Kloek/Peters Sengers/Tobé 1998 , p. 152
Van der Willigen/Meijer 2003
Rees 2010 , p. 101-113 (about her trip to Suriname)
Klarenbeek 2012 , passim
Goedings 2015 , p. 163-167
Saur 1992- , vol. 89 (2016), p. 145
Münch et al. 2017 , p. 73-88
Horn/Van Leeuwen 2021 [Houbraken Translated]

C.H. Kerner, Seidenraupe, Dschungelblüte. Die Lebensgeschichte der Maria Sibylla Merian, Weinheim 1995
N.Z. Davis, Drei Frauenleben: Glikl, Marie de l'Incarnation, Maria Sibylla Merian, Berlijn 1996
H. Kaiser, Maria Sibylla Merian. Eine Biographie, Düsseldorf 1997
I.N. Lebedeva, 'De nalatenschap van Maria Sibylla Merian in Sint-Petersburg', in: R. Kistemaker e.a., Peter de Grote en Holland, Amsterdams Historisch Museum (Amsterdam) 1997, p. 60-66
N.Z. Davis, Metamorphosen. Das Leben der Maria Sibylla Merian, Berlijn 2003
M. Klier (red.), Neues Blumenbuch, München 2003 (herdruk van de uitgave uit 1680, met inleiding)
D. Kühn, Frau Merian! Eine Lebensgeschichte, Frankfurt am Main 2003
K. Wettengel, 'Maria Sibylla Merian und die Frankfurter Naturalienkabinette des 18. Jahrhunderts. Eine neue Ausstellung des Naturmuseums Senckenberg', Natur und Museum 134 (2004), p. 208-213
H. Ludwig, 'Georg Flegel's "Frosch", "Zauneidechse" und "Molchansichten" und ihre Beziehung zu Werken von Maria Sibylla Merian', Kunst in Hessen und am Mittelrhein NF 1 (2005), p. 93-112
C.M. Nutting, 'Crossing Disciplines: The Fruitful Duality of Maria Sibylla Merian's Artistic and Naturalist Inheritances', Dutch Crossing 35 (2011), p. 137-147
S. Schrader, N, Turner, N. Yocco, 'Naturalism under the Microscope: A Technical Study of Maria Sibylla Merian's Metamorphosis of the Insects of Surinam', Getty Research Journal 4 (2012), p. 161-172
H. Mulder, 'Nieuw licht op de publicaties van Maria Sybilla Merian', De Boekenwereld 31 (2015), no. 2, p. 70-75
E. Reitsma, 'Een Duitse immigrante in Amsterdam. Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717): entomologe avant la lettre en kunstenares', Ons Amsterdam 69 (2017) no. 1, p. 40-43
M. Gatza, 'Geliebte Biester', Weltkunst no. 128, March 2017, p. 20-30
M. Roth, C. Heroven, 'Austellungen: Kupferstcihkabinett, Maria Sibylla Merian und die Tradition des Blumenbildes', Museums Journal Berlin & Potsdam, 2017, no. 2, p. 44-46
B.van de Roemer, 'Gedenkjaar Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717): een vrouw op het snijvlak van kunst en wetenschap', Maandblad Amstelodamum 104 (2017), p. 90-93

Carin Grabowski, Zwischen Naturtreue und Konstruktion: kritische Analyse und Neubewertung des Oeuvres der Maria Sybilla Merian (1614-1717), dissertatie in voorbereiding (Kunstgeschichtliches Seminar, Phil. Fakultât III, der Humboldt-Universität, Berlin: Prof. Bredekamp): Kunstchronik 2008/8, p. 403

Documentation RKD

This field specifies the location of the various RKD documentation materials. Most of the locations refer to our art-historical image documentation. In addition, you will find references to press documentation (clippings and short articles) here.

bij PDO ook op: Merian (familie)

Project: Gerson Digital : Germany

External links: this artist in Ecartico
DVN

Permalink: https://rkd.nl/explore/artists/55357

Creation date: 1992-02-01; Last modified date: 2023-05-16

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Maria Sibylla Merian

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