![Anna Waser and Maria Sibylla Merian are among the foremost artists of the Baroque period. Illustrations from Johann Caspar Füssli's compendium of the best artists in Switzerland from 1769–1779.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/anna-waser-und-maria-sibylla-merian-300x225.jpg)
Waser and Merian – two trailblazing female artists of the Baroque era
The Baroque period saw increasing numbers of female artists begin to question the social structures of the age. The stories of Anna Waser and Maria Sibylla Merian demonstrate how these female artists fully bore comparison with their male contemporaries.
![Self-portrait of Anna Waser drawn with silverpoint, 1706.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/selbstportrat-von-anna-waser-gbe-147081-lm-23693-300x296.jpg)
Anna Waser – from Werner's pupil to court painter
![Anna Waser's Self-portrait at the age of 12, painting the likeness of her teacher Johannes Sulzer, 1691.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/selbstportrat-von-anna-waser-246x300.jpg)
![Waser wrote in French: “These few strokes are intended to convey to the famous owner of this book the greetings of his cousin.” Self-portrait of Anna Waser, 1697.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/selbstportrat-von-anna-waser-1691-300x186.jpg)
![The Devil's Bridge is pictured in barren, craggy surroundings. Illustration from Johann Jakob Scheuchzer’s Ouresiphoites Helveticus, sive, itinera per Helvetiae alpinas […], 1723.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/teufelsbrucke-waser-208x300.jpg)
![Like Waser, Johann Jakob Scheuchzer also corresponded with Maria Clara Eimmart. Her drawing of half of the moon in Scheuchzer's family album reveals Eimmart's forensic view of its surface, 1695.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/maria-clara-eimmart-300x197.jpg)
Maria Sibylla Merian – the study of nature and its metamorphoses
![Maria Sibylla Merian's Vermes Miraculosi, from her Caterpillar Book, 1679.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/maria-sibylla-merians-wunderraupen-246x300.jpg)
![Merian always examined the plants that were food to the animals she studied in Suriname, and reproduced them in detail in her work, 1705.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/merian-surinam-239x300.jpg)