Thoroughly Modern Merian

New Getty exhibit reveals a German naturalist/artist who was ahead of her time

Her own life journey was marked by transformations as dramatic as the turns taken by the caterpillars she so passionately studied. Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717) grew up in Germany, married, had two daughters, left her husband to join a religious colony, moved to Amsterdam and, at 52, sold all her possessions to sail to the jungles of South America. All the while, she forged an unlikely career as an artist and scientist, bringing to life her meticulous study of plants and insects with vivid watercolors and hand-colored engravings. Even more remarkable, she did this during the 17th century, when women were excluded from scientific study and forbidden to paint in oils. And to focus on insects, then thought of as ‘beasts of the devil,’ showed particular verve. A new exhibition at the Getty Center spotlights Merian’s revolutionary work in art and science as well as those of her most important students’daughters Johanna Helena and Dorothea Maria. It’s the first solo show of her work in the United States. At the entrance to the exhibition, Merian’s portrait is reproduced alongside the great scientists and rulers of the day, people like Sir Hans Sloane, Albert Seba and Peter the Great. ‘You get an idea of the singularity of this woman who was able to navigate in a field completely dominated by men,’ says Stephanie Schrader, associate curator of drawings at the Getty and organizer of the exhibition. Merian’s lifelong fascination with the metamorphosis of insects began as a young girl in her native Frankfurt. At 13, she painted the transformation of silkworms into moths. For the next 50 years, she pursued the job of collecting and rearing caterpillars, directly observing them in order to accurately depict their life cycle. ‘Patience is a very beneficial herb,’ Merian once wrote about the time-consuming task informing her two volumes illustrating caterpillars’ growth stages and feeding patterns. These books helped disprove the commonly held belief that insects developed spontaneously from decaying matter. Nonetheless, scientists of the time largely ignored her work since the text had not been written in their official language, Latin. Unlike other scientific illustrators of her day, Merian was among the first to show caterpillars, chrysalises and butterflies with the specific plants they ate. ‘Her images are uncommonly compelling and dynamic,’ says Schrader, who underscores the point by displaying examples of the rote illustrations that were the norm among her contemporaries. Merian’s images, ruthlessly exacting while daring in color and composition, hold up to this day as individual, enthralling works of art. A good example is a watercolor of a pomegranate tree, the earliest work in the exhibition. ‘What she does that is so different is introduce the passage of time into this narrative,’ Schrader says. The image shows the exotic fruit in all stages from ripe to rotten and finally as a food source. ‘She’s already bucking the tradition of recording flowers solely for posterity.’ Family connections’Merian’s stepfather, Jacob Marrel, was a renowned still-life painter and her teacher’opened an otherwise closed door to art training. Her first publication, the ‘New Book of Flowers’ (1675-80), served as a pattern book for embroidery and became her calling card to teach young girls, the daughters of wealthy patricians, how to embroider and paint. She took advantage of the situation, raiding her clients’ vast gardens filled with specimens to further her scientific study. The precise reason Merian, at 39, left her husband and took off with her daughters to live in a strict Protestant community in Friesland (the Netherlands) is unknown, but the event changed her life. Despite her isolation, she was exposed to the most exotic specimens ever. The governor of the Dutch colony of Suriname, who shipped home large moths, lizards, snakes, and beetles from South America, owned the castle where she lived. Five years later, the religious community collapsed. Merian and her daughters fled to Amsterdam, where they supported themselves by supplying wealthy collectors with preserved animals and exotic insects from faraway lands for their curiosity cabinet. Ultimately, Merian tired of seeing only dead specimens from South America and sold everything she owned in order to go to Suriname for a firsthand encounter. Her work from this period forms the crescendo of the Getty exhibition, showcasing monumental, life-size portraits of the exotica she came face-to-face with, including beguiling lizards and snakes. Her research in South America culminated with her most important publication: ‘The Insects of Suriname.’ She didn’t shy away from nature’s violence, either, with graphic works showing the handiwork made of hummingbirds by blood-sucking tarantulas. ‘These really powerful image mess with people’s notions of gender,’ Schrader says. ‘People tend to think women only represent things that are pretty or decorative. But she didn’t shy away from depicting the violence she saw.’ She didn’t shy away either from making cultural observations about the foul-smelling climate, the local uses of flora and fauna for food, shelter and medicine, and the issues of slavery in the Dutch Colony. ‘We’re an art museum trying to bring art and science together,’ says Schrader, who has placed butterfly and other animal specimens–things we normally associate seeing in natural history museums–on view throughout the exhibition to allow visitors a fuller experience. ‘As in Merian’s work, there’s no clear division between these two disciplines, and they definitely overlap here.’ ‘Maria Sibylla Merian & Daughters: Women of Art and Science’ continues at the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Getty Center through August 31. A lecture by Kim Todd, author of a new Merian biography, will take place tonight at 7 p.m. in the Harold M. Williams Auditorium. ‘Maria Sibylla Merian: A New Documentary Film’ will be screened on Sunday, July 27 at 3 p.m. in the auditorium. For a complete listing of related events, go online to www.getty.edu.