Forest Floor Still Life With Snails, A Lizard, A Grasshopper, Moths And A Snake

A dense forest undergrowth painted against a near-black ground. A thistle rises at center, its spiny gray-green leaves surrounded by climbing morning glories in deep blue. A snake coils down from the dark trunk behind, its patterned body catching the light. A yellow-orange tiger moth rests on the thistle leaf at left; a pale cream butterfly hovers at upper right. At the base of the plant, a green-and-yellow lizard stretches across a rust-red mushroom. Below, two snails crawl across the moss — one with a pale cream shell, one with a yellow shell — beside a blue and white butterfly at the water's edge. A grasshopper sits on the thistle leaf at left. The forest opens to a distant landscape at the upper left, with a faint patch of blue sky visible through the trees. The whole composition is a theater of the undergrowth, with every creature rendered in near-scientific precision.