Day 2 of @museumbuddy! Today look at two 17th/e. 18th c print/textile makers. First, I’ve chosen Maria Sibylla Merian because I worked closely w/ her art when I worked in Prints & Drawings @britishmuseum. Her engraved self-portrait (1719) shows off her knowledge. #MuseumBuddy

Merian is best known as a printmaker, botanical artist & entomologist (just a few things!), but like most 17th c. women, she was trained in needlepoint and fabric making from about age 8. Here's an early, gorgeous (!!!) hand-coloured engraving from the 1670s #museumbuddy

Merian’s step-father, Jacob Marrel, a painter, ran his workshop from their home. He encouraged Maria’s drawing early on (against her mother’s will). Maria trained w/ Marrel’s male students in painting & drawing while managing her household duties, which included textile work.

Maria’s training in textiles exposed her to insects (women were expected to cultivate silkworms for fabric production). Her drawings of the life cycle of insects began w/gendered household duties. Here, an early engraving of a silkworm cycle by Merian.

Karel van Mallery’s 1595 print series ‘Introduction to the Silkworm’ @metmuseum shows women at every stage of the silk-making process. Here, they spread silkworms out on shelves. #museumbuddy

Merian drew for art & science: ‘I was always encouraged to embellish my flower painting with caterpillars, summer birds [butterflies] & such little animals in the same manner in which landscape painters do in pictures, to enliven the one through the other. . .’ #museumbuddy

Merian made ‘needle paintings’ & taught embroidery. So, when she began to work on paper she was primed to think how her works would translate across media. Her early compositions in print & drawing were also useful patterns/design inspiration for textiles. This image @rijksmuseum

This engraving from her 1680 ‘New Book of Flowers’ was promoted for botanical study, but Merian understood how it could & would be used as a pattern book if she made the prints pattern-like, transferable to textile. #museumbuddy