MARSEUS VAN SCHRIECK, Otto
(b. 1619/20, Nijmegen, d. 1678, Amsterdam)

A Forest Floor Still-Life

1666
Oil on canvas, 52 x 43 cm
Private collection

Marseus van Schrieck was one of the first painters to specialise in this type of still-life and his pictures were imitated by a number of artists. This still-life represents a milk thistle, mushrooms, a wood snail, a blue, a queen of Spain fritillary, an emperor moth, a tortoise shell, a dragon-fly, together with an aspis adder taking a fledgeling from a nest of a sedge-warbler.

Marseus van Schrieck was fascinated by the animals which he painted and their behaviour. He knew the habits of these creatures very well and is known to have bred snakes, lizards and insects himself. It therefore seems that many of the detailed flora and fauna contained in his paintings were based on careful study of the various animals, insects and plants he discovered and kept in his own garden, a 'watery' domain near Diemen.