Description

The Surinam Album by Maria Sibylla Merian

Maria Sibylla Merian was one of the 17th and 18th centuries great painters of plants and animals. There are significant collections of Merian’s work in the Academy of Sciences in St Petersburg and The Royal Collection, Windsor, but the finest and largest collection of her Surinam work is kept in the British Museum, which contains 91 watercolours. Carefully preserved in the British Museum, the 91 watercolours have never faded and the colours glow with all the intensity Merian must have felt as she first gazed on the lush splendour of the tropics. The vivid reds of the flowers and birds, the rich variety of greens and the brilliant flashes of colour on caterpillars and butterflies are astounding and required ground-breaking techniques to produce at the time Merian was painting.

This Folio facsimile has accurately reproduced the complicated effects employed by Merian such as her use of black chalk to build up and emphasise the thickness of leaves and the application of silver and gold to imitate the iridescent wings of butterflies or the shiny carapace of beetles. Each painting has been carefully photographed and the arduous colour-matching process has faithfully replicated even the oxidised whites and blues of the original 18th-century colour. The paintings are printed on Furioso paper to give the closest look and feel to the original vellum, and provides superb colour and print quality. The album paper has been folded and sewn in such a way that each page has a guard which strengthens the spine, protects the pictures and allows the book to lie evenly flat. Both the album and the protective solander box have leather titling labels in black goatskin which is blocked in gold.

Although the variety of Merian’s work is best showcased in an album, her beautiful paintings are also wonderful when framed. The Folio Society therefore selected 3 prints (7, 56 and 65) from The Surinam Album and these standalone facsimile prints are included with this volume. These prints show the range of her work, from her fine colouring of flowers, to the innovative charm of her composition. As these prints were initially designed to be mounted and frame it is unusual to have them still with the book. They are missing more often than not.

Features;

• Folio Society Limited Edition No. 43 of 1000
• Publisher Folio Society, London; 2006
• Quarter-bound in Nigerian goatskin leather with cloth sides
• 91 facsimile prints tipped in by hand
• Size 510 x 460mm, 12kg

Condition: Fine – Superb Unmarked Copy

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