Reptiles, Mushrooms and Butterflies

A forest floor at night. A white-capped mushroom rises at center, surrounded by a cluster of smaller mushrooms in pale brown, cream, and a striking coral-red honeycomb fungus. A lizard, rendered with careful scientific precision, stretches across the moss at lower left. A dark snake coils behind the mushrooms. A cream-colored butterfly hovers at upper left; a dragonfly floats above the mushrooms at upper right. A toad sits in the shadows at right. At the lower edge, broken snail shells, lichens, and spent flowers scatter across the forest floor. The entire composition is lit from a single source at the upper left, with the black ground absorbing everything not directly in the light. Marseus painted several versions of this subject throughout his career. Some contain real butterfly wings pressed directly into the wet paint — a technique he invented called lepidochromy.