35 of 100: Women botanical artists

As I mentioned a while back, I am working on a book that unites botany and art. The chapter I'm currently engaged on, titled "Colonial Roots and Symbolic Blooms," takes on the patriarchy (to some extent), in part by mentioning an array of female artists who elevated the inferior art genres of landscapes, and plant and animal studies, to respectability (conceptual depth, moral integrity, and ethical elevation having been hitherto ascribed only to art portraying grandiose human narratives).

In one paragraph, a good dozen of these women are singled out by name, and I thought I'd feature them, each with a painting or print that strikes my fancy. So here goes, listed in the random order they're cited in the book. Starting with an artist who is mentioned frequently, and whom I may well feature separately at some later time:

Maria Sibylle Merian (1647–1717), German entomologist, though she also focused on plants (as hosts): 

Spiders, ants, and hummingbird on a branch
of guava (the bird is at the lower left: lunch)

Maria Moninckx (1673–1657), Dutch:

Gasteria brachyphylla

Johanna Helena Herolt (1668–1723), German (and a daughter of Maria Sybille Merian):

A poppy in three stages of flowering,
with a caterpillar, pupa, and butterfly

Helena Scott Forde (1832–1910), Australian (no, this is not a plant—but for something a little different...):

Black snake (Pseudechis porphyriacus)

Berthe Hoola van Nooten (1817–1892), Dutch (died in Java):

Custard-apple (Annona reticulata)

Barbara Regina Dietzsch (1706–1783), Bavarian:

Dandelion with butterflies and caterpillar

Lise Cloquet (1788–1860), French:

Wild cherry, sweet cherry, 1820

Rachel Ruysch (1664–1750), Dutch:

Roses, convolvulus, poppies, and other flowers
in an urn on a stone ledge, 1680s

Maria van Oosterwijck (1630–1693), Dutch:

Bouquet of flowers in a Rhine stoneware vase
on an entablature with an arrangement of shells

Frances Elizabeth Tripp (1832–1890), British bryologist:

British mosses

Augusta Innes Withers (1792–1877), British:

Oncidium incurvum orchid

Lydia Byam (1772–1854), British (who specialized in plants of the West Indies):

Rocou, aka annatto

And now, I'd better get back to proofreading . . .