Maria Sibylla Merian

Timeline

1. 1665–1685Nuremberg · FranconiaBorn into a Frankfurt family of engravers and publishers, she studied flower painting under her stepfather Jacob Marrel. After marriage she moved to Nuremberg, rearing and daily recording the metamorphosis of European Lepidoptera. She published The Wondrous Transformation of Caterpillars in volumes in 1679 and 1683, depicting larvae, pupae, adults and food plants in a single copperplate image.
2. 1685–1699Amsterdam · HollandIn 1685 she separated from her husband and joined the Labadists at Wieuwerd with her mother and daughter; after her mother's death in 1690 she moved to Amsterdam in 1691, opening a studio where she saw tropical specimens brought back from the East and West Indies. There she met collectors such as Witsen and Ruysch and planned a self-funded trip to Suriname for field observation.
3. 1699–1701Paramaribo · SurinameIn 1699 she traveled at her own expense to Dutch Suriname with her young daughter Dorothea, collecting, rearing and drawing tropical insects, amphibians and host plants, and recording plant uses among indigenous and enslaved communities. The results were later published as Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium in 1705, though her observations and sketches were made during her 1699–1701 stay in Suriname.