four insects with spread wings; clockwise from top: larger insect with purple and green wings, brown body; smaller insect with yellow, black and white wings, brown body, and orange legs; larger insect with orange, green and brown wings, red/orange body; smaller insect with tan, pink and black wings, black body, and orange legs

Insects, 18th century

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This drawing comes from the Age of Enlightenment, a period of heightened scientific study of the natural world. In his youth, Dutch mathematician Nicolaas Struyk took great interest in insects. He collected them on outings with his father, and he had access to formidable collections that we were being assembled in his hometown, the international trading city of Amsterdam. One of the greatest collections belonged to Albertus Seba, a pharmacist who provided medicines to voyagers heading to Indonesia and other far-away places. Attempting to discover materials with pharmaceutical potential, Seba acquired natural history specimens from the sailors who returned. He eventually built an enormous collection that he sold to Russian tsar Peter the Great. Struyk made beautiful illustrations of Seba’s specimens and similar material from other collections, compiling six volumes of drawings by 1719. These marvelous insects may well have come from Indonesia, where the locals would eat them.

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Details
Title
Insects
Artist Life
1686 - 1769
Role
Artist
Accession Number
2019.108.2
Provenance
Possibly Albertus Seba (Amsterdam, 1665-1736). Bonham’s, London, April 20, 2005, part of lot 142, unsold. Private Collection, USA; [Mireille Mosler, Ltd., New York]; sold to MIA, 2019.
Curator Approved

This record has been reviewed by our curatorial staff but may be incomplete. These records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about this object, please email collectionsdata@artsmia.org.

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four insects with spread wings; clockwise from top: larger insect with purple and green wings, brown body; smaller insect with yellow, black and white wings, brown body, and orange legs; larger insect with orange, green and brown wings, red/orange body; smaller insect with tan, pink and black wings, black body, and orange legs