In Amsterdam, she was able to promote

her ground-breaking studies of insects and their life cycles,

illustrated with exquisite works of art.

At the time, many people believe that insects emerged

fully formed, spontaneously, from the Earth.

That somehow they were born out of the mud.

But Maria explained and painted their life cycle.

Their metamorphosis from caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly.

She not only explained that process,

she showed which plant species

each butterfly species was dependent upon.

This book revolutionised the study of insects in Europe.

But it also helped Maria raise the funds to embark upon a journey

to study the more exotic creatures

that she knew she would find

in the tropical regions of the Dutch empire.

Seduced, like so many others,

by the Dutch Republic's connections to faraway lands...

In 1699, Maria Sibylla set sail

for South America and the Dutch colony of Suriname,

on the tropical Caribbean coast.

Maria Sibylla spent two years exploring Suriname,

sketching and painting local plants and animals.

Many of them were previously unknown to Europeans.

Her work encapsulates the spirit of curiosity

that helped fuel the scientific revolution.

Just like the Dutch in Japan, the story of the British in India

began with their merchants operating very much on the margins...

Obliged to flatter the local princes

and the Mughal emperors who ruled then.

But this story would mark a profound shift

from the age of discovery to a new, 19th-century age,

where Europe's imperial ambitions came to dominate the globe.

That shift from trade to rule

was captured in the work of two artists

from different sides of the encounter.