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Half height banner for Maria Merian exhibition, showing a butterfly
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MARIA SIBYLLA MERIAN (1647-1717)

Marsh Marigold with the life stages of a frog

c. 1705-10

RCIN 921225

Merian was as fascinated by amphibian metamorphosis as she was by the life cycle of insects. This watercolour is based on studies she made in April 1686, when she was living with a religious community in the Netherlands. She described the froglets, which had not yet lost their tails, as ‘like little crocodiles’.

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