Butterfly Journey

The amazing story of the life and work of the renowned botanical artist Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717) is told alongside her beautiful illustrations of butterflies in this elegant book. A woman ahead of her time, she was an intrepid explorer, naturalist, scholar, as well as a magnificent artist. This book tells Merian's incredible life story alongside colorful reproductions of her engravings and watercolors of the butterflies she encountered during her lifetime in Germany and the Netherlands, and her seminal trip to the Dutch colony of Surinam. The book recounts her monumental expedition, her work as an advocate for the slave laborers of Suriname, and her important studies of the anatomy and life cycle of the butterfly. Author Boris Friedewald employs Merian's favorite insect as a metaphor for the artist's own pioneering evolution from budding entomologist to educator, activist, and artist.