Color your way through the New Orleans Museum of Art! Below, you’ll find a selection of coloring sheets including newly revived and refreshed coloring pages from the 1992 New Orleans Museum of Art Coloring Book featuring illustrations by Shirley Rabe Masinter.
Otto Marseus Van Schreick, Serpents and Insects
Otto Marseus van Schreck, Serpents and Insects, 1647, Oil on canvas, Gift of John J. Cunningham, 56.30
Otto Marseus Van Schreick, 1647
Serpents and Insects
Otto Marseus Van Schrieck’s strange imagery features up close views of unusual zoological subjects. The Dutch artist based his paintings upon the rare insects, frogs, lizards, and snakes that he collected and raised in a vivarium. He assembled these domesticated reptiles and amphibians in a manner similar to how still life painters arrange objects. At at time when the art market flourished in the Netherlands as merchants and other middle class professions purchased art for their homes, Van Schrieck developed his own speciality of subject matter.
Take a Closer Look on Google Arts & Culture
Here, the animal grouping appears within a forest ecosystem engaged in activities that indicate relationships of predator and prey. This illustration of the brutality of the natural world conveys a vanitas theme that was common among Dutch artists and patrons of the 17thcentury. This reminder of the brevity of life would remind viewers of their own situation in the world.
