[Watercolour of a wallflower and a double hyacinth, with inchworm moths, larvae and pupae].
[Amsterdam, ca. 1700]. Watercolour drawing (38 x 29 cm) on extremely fine white parchment, said to be uterine lamb, showing a wallflower and a double hyacinth with two inchworm moths in the air (2 different species) and two inchworms and two pupae on the leaves and flowers. Framed.
Characteristic original watercolour botanical drawing by Johanna Helena Herolt (1668-post 1721), the eldest daughter of Maria Sibylla Merian and Johann Andreas Graff. It shows a wallflower (Cheiranthus cheiri) and double hyacinth (Hyacinthus orientalis) with two inchworm moths (Geometriae) in the air, two inchworms and two pupae. She probably drew it in Amsterdam around 1700. Though she still remains in the shadow of her mother, she was a fine flower and insect artist in her own right and there is growing appreciation of her work. Her watercolours, more baroque than her mother's and often with brighter colours, radiate vigour and vivacity: the flowers, painted with intensity in every detail, really come to life.
Reitsma, p. 135, notes that the prices for the flower watercolours increased with the number of insects, so the present watercolour must have been unusually expensive. Most of Herolt's work is numbered and the present watercolour is numbered "145"[?] on the back. The published catalogues rarely note the numbers, but we understand the highest number known is 164.
Characteristic watercolour in fine state of preservation, with certificate of authenticity from Dr. S. Segal, Amsterdam. Herolt herself may have revised the upper part of the hyacinth.
Reitsma, Maria Sibylla Merian & dochters, ill. 110 (p. 147; a nearly identical drawing of the same wallflower specimen with 1 butterfly); Wettengl, Maria Sibylla Merian 1647-1717, kunstenares en natuuronderzoekster, no. 120 (ill. 44 on p. 85; a similar watercolour including the same wallflower specimen, with no insects).
