From her childhood Anna Sibylla Merian displayed an aptitude for drawing and a special interest in insect life.  The latter greatly disturbed her mother, but she could not turn the child’s attention from entomology, and was forced to allow that study to become her chief pursuit.

The flower painter, Abraham Mignon, was her master in drawing and painting; but at an early age, before her studies were well advanced, she married an architect, John Andrew Graf, of Nuremberg, with whom she lived unhappily.  She passed nearly twenty years in great seclusion, and, as she tells us in the preface to one of her books, she devoted these years to the examination and study of various insects, watching their transformations and making drawings from them.  Many of these were in colors on parchment and were readily sold to connoisseurs.

Her first published work was called “The Wonderful Transformations of Caterpillars.”  It appeared in 1679, was fully illustrated by copper plate engravings, executed by herself from her own designs.  About 1684 she separated from her husband, and with her daughters returned to Frankfort.  Many interesting stories are told of her life there.

She made a journey to Friesland and was a convert to the doctrines of Labadie, but she was still devoted to her study and research.  She was associated with the notable men of her time, and became the friend of the father of Rachel Ruysch.  Although Madame Merian, who had taken her maiden name, was seventeen years older than the gifted flower painter, she became to her an example of industry and devotion to study.

Madame Merian had long desired to examine the insects of Surinam, and in 1699, by the aid of the Dutch Government, she made the journey—­of which a French poet wrote: 

    “Sibylla a Surinam va chercher la nature,
    Avec l’esprit d’un Sage, et le coeur d’un Heros”

—­which indicates the view then held of a journey which would now attract no attention.

While in Guiana some natives brought her a box filled with “lantern flies,” as they were then called.  The noise they made at night was so disturbing that she liberated them, and the flies, regaining liberty, flashed out their most brilliant light, for which Madame Merian was unprepared, and in her surprise dropped the box.  From this circumstance a most exaggerated idea obtained concerning the illuminating power of the flies.

The climate of Surinam was so unhealthy for Madame Merian that she could remain there but two years, and in that time she gathered the materials for her great work called “Metamorphoses Insectorum Surinamensium,” etc.  The illustrations were her own, and she pictured many most interesting objects—­animals and vegetables as well as insects—­which were quite unknown in Europe.  Several editions of this book were published both in German and French.  Her plates are still approved and testify to the scope and thoroughness of her research, as well as to her powers as an artist.