Herolt Iris Watercolor

HEROLT, Johanna Helena (born Graff).
Iris.
Watercolor on thin vellum.
9 5/8" x 7 5/8" vellum; 15 1/2" x 13 1/2" framed.

Authenticicated by Dr Sam Segal, Amsterdam, 1987. Was this part of the Probably Pieter van den Brande; by descent to E.C. Baron van Pellandt, his sale, Sotheby's, 26th September, 1972, lot 318a; with Sotheby's, Amsterdam, 15th November, 1994, lot 27.Herolt-Graff was the eldest daughter of the celebrated and important botanical artist Maria Sibylla Merian and Johann Andreas Graff. She was born in Frankfurt, but in 1668 moved with her family to Nuremberg. In 1681 Maria Sibylla Merian separated from Graff and returned to Frankfurt, in order to live with her mother, Johanna Sybilla Heim, after her stepfather Jacob Marrel's death. Although Johann Graff joined his family there later, in 1686 Merian left her husband permanently and moved with her two daughters and her mother to a religious community of Labadists in Wieuwerd, Friesland. In 1691 Maria and her daughters moved to Amsterdam, where they set up a studio painting flowers and botanical subjects.The iris is a cultivar of hybrid origin, the parents being German Flag and Pale Flag. The former has been in culture since the Middle Ages, and it is mentioned already as a garden plant in a document of 795 C.E. Its origin is unknown, probably eastern mediterrabean, The Pale Flag is mediterranean. The hybrid can be traced from the early sixteenth century, appearing in paintings.