The painted lady is an extraordinary butterfly with an epic life. Weighing an average of one and a half grams and with brains the size of a pinhead they can easily fly more than 4000 kilometres from all over Europe to the tropical African savannah every autumn. Why? How do they know the way? Over the centuries, the discoveries made by lepidopterists and artists have unravelled the mysteries of the fascinating life of this global traveller.
Maxime Beck made the drawings. He is a French artist who works as much as possible with natural materials such as rainwater, earth and ground color pigments. His intense love for nature can be found in his work. He is founder and co-chairman of the association ‘des Oiseaux et la Nature’.
Elvira Werkman is a Dutch writer and freelance journalist. She writes for all ages about nature, history, art and human life. She previously published acclaimed titles such as Birds and Love, The Amazing Story of Montagu’s Harrier and the children’s book Whales in the wind.
Cooperation We made this book in collaboration with the Dutch Butterfly Association and the global citizen science project around the Painted Lady. Also made possible by the Suzanne Hovinga Stichting, the Uyttenboogaart-Eliasen Stichting and voordekunst.nl
