HUNTER + COLLECTOR
  • hello
  • Interiors
  • Collections
  • press/ shows
  • buy
  • notes
  • Blog
  • contact
  • About Me

musings

A Woman of Substance

10/16/2020

 
Picture
My last series ‘Instar’ is named after the term given to the various developmental stages in the metamorphosis of an insect.

The collection is dedicated to the memory of a fascinating 17th century woman of science, Maria Merian, who dedicated her life to the close observation of insects. She was the first person to offer proof of metamorphosis and dispel the widespread contemporary belief was that insects were "born of mud" by spontaneous generation. Merian documented evidence and described the life cycles of 186 insect species over her lifetime. She was an accomplished artist and her illustrations and engravings are stunning examples of her botanical and entomological observations.

Maria was a fearless and intrepid explorer, and in 1699 she sailed with her daughter nearly 5,000 miles from the Netherlands to South America to study insects in the jungles of what is now known as Suriname. She was 52. The result was her magnum opus, ‘Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium’. Her achievements were extraordinary for a woman born within the constraints of 17th century society, and despite being partially paralysed by a stroke, she continued working until her death in Amsterdam in 1717. The death register lists her as a pauper.

Maria Sybilla Merian, naturalist, 2 April 1647 – 13 January 1717


Comments are closed.

    Archives

    November 2023
    February 2022
    October 2020
    February 2020
    October 2019
    December 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • hello
  • Interiors
  • Collections
  • press/ shows
  • buy
  • notes
  • Blog
  • contact
  • About Me