Heliconia with Insects – 19th-Century Lithograph after Merian’s Plate 54 (1705)

€ 220

Original antique · The actual sheet photographed · Certificate of authenticity on request · Sold unframed · Worldwide shipping from € 15 (rates)

Date: 1705
Sheet size: 30 × 20 cm (11.8 × 7.9 in)
Condition: Good
Reference: BG-13036

What the condition grades mean

Excellent: Bright and clean, with no faults worth mentioning.
Very good: Only light signs of age, such as faint toning.
Good: Normal signs of age for a sheet of this period: toning, some foxing, small marks or neat old repairs.
Fair: Clear faults such as staining, tears or repairs, priced to match.

Every fault we see is written in the condition note, and the whole sheet is shown uncropped in the photos.

Condition

Very good condition. Colors are fresh and vibrant, with only minimal toning. No visible tears or creases. The print is presented in a dark green matting board, which enhances the rich reds of the Heliconia and complements the green foliage.

About this sheet

A Heliconia plant with its insects, a color lithograph of the nineteenth century after plate 54 of Maria Sibylla Merian's Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium, first published in Amsterdam in 1705. The field year of 1705 refers to the original work; this print is a later copy, and it is shown in a green mat.

The picture shows a single stem of heliconia with its red, claw-shaped bracts rising from a broad green leaf. Around the plant Merian shows the insects that live on it in different stages of life: pale green caterpillars on the bracts, a larva and pupae on the leaf below, and winged adults, among them a fly and a moth, around the stem. Combining the plant with the full life cycle of the insects was the hallmark of her work. Merian (1647 to 1717) was a German-born naturalist and illustrator who traveled to Suriname in 1699 to study its plants and insects, and the plates of her book remain some of the best-known natural history illustrations of the New World.