At 22, she married artist Johann Andreas Graff and moved to Nuremberg where she continued to pursue her career as a professional artist, teaching, painting, and publishing. From 1675 to 1680 her first work Neues Blumenbuch was self-published and marketed in three volumes of 12 drawings each. The illustrations were intended to be used as models for painting and embroidery patterns.

 

Maria Sibylla Merian was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany on April 4, 1647. Her father, engraver and topographical artist Matthaeus Merian the Elder, died when she was three, but the family moved in artistic circles and when her mother remarried, it was to another artist. Jacob Marell, her step-father, taught her engraving and painting. Her interest in science was already evident at the age of 13 when she cultivated silkworms and made observations on their lifecycle.