Collection · 61 prints
The Serpent
Snake and serpent art prints: paintings, prints, manuscripts and illustrations in which snakes, serpents and hydras appear. Subjects include Adam and Eve with the serpent by Albrecht Dürer, Lucas Cranach the Elder and Hans Baldung Grien; El Greco's Laocoön; Gustave Moreau's Hercules and the Lernaean Hydra; William Blake's Dante engravings; Franz von Stuck's Sin; Étienne Dinet's The Snake Charmer; and Mewar and Garhwal miniatures of Krishna subduing the serpent Kaliya. The collection also includes alchemical manuscripts and engravings, Maria Sibylla Merian's natural history plates, a Shahnama miniature and illustrations by Edmund Dulac and Heinrich Vogeler. The works range from the 16th century to the early 20th century.
The selection covers the serpent as tempter, monster, scientific specimen and alchemical symbol.
The engravings and manuscripts suit studies and libraries; the Indian miniatures work in a living room or hallway. All prints are museum-quality reproductions, available unframed or framed with low-glare acrylic glazing, with free shipping and import duties covered.
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Note: Framed prints require slightly longer production time
A dark silhouetted figure stands playing a pipe, its body wound with black snakes that trail down into the grass and toward a pale pink long-legged bird at the left. A full moon glows at the upper left above dense jungle foliage; a red flower and a green bird perch in the branches at the upper right. Water and a distant shore lie behind the figure. Henri Rousseau signs 'Henri Julien Rousseau' with the date 1907 at the lower right.
Henri Rousseau (1844–1910) was a self-taught French Post-Impressionist and Naïve painter. He worked as a Paris toll collector, earning the nickname 'Le Douanier,' and did not paint seriously until his forties, inventing his jungle scenes from botanical gardens and illustrated books rather than travel. He exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants from 1886 and was championed late in life by Picasso and Apollinaire; The Sleeping Gypsy (1897) and The Dream (1910) are among his best-known paintings. His work is held by the Museum of Modern Art, the Musée d'Orsay and the National Gallery of Art, Washington.
Each print is made to our Archival Museum Standards: a 12-ink giclée, printed to order. Unframed prints are made on Hahnemühle German Etching, a 310gsm matte fine-art paper. Framed prints arrive in a handmade solid-wood frame with low-reflection glazing, ready to hang. Ships worldwide with free delivery to 30+ countries.
Note: Framed prints require slightly longer production time
A caiman twists across a pale green ground, its scaly tail curled high over its back and its jaws clamped on a snake banded in green, yellow, dark red and black. The snake loops in wide coils above the caiman and trails down to a spiral shell at the lower right. At the lower left, beneath the adult's clawed hind foot, a young caiman pushes its head and forefoot out of a cracked white egg. Pale, bead-like belly scales run along the caiman's underside.
Maria Sibylla Merian (1647–1717) was a German-born naturalist and artist from Frankfurt, the daughter of the engraver Matthäus Merian, trained by her stepfather, the still-life painter Jacob Marrel. In Nuremberg she published a flower book and, from 1679, a study of caterpillars that showed each insect through its metamorphosis on the plant it fed on. In 1699, at fifty-two, she sailed with her daughter Dorothea to Suriname, and in 1705 published Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium, with 60 engraved plates after her watercolours. Her work set a new standard of accuracy for scientific illustration. It is held by the British Museum, the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Each print is made to our Archival Museum Standards: a 12-ink giclée, printed to order. Unframed prints are made on Hahnemühle German Etching, a 310gsm matte fine-art paper. Framed prints arrive in a handmade solid-wood frame with low-reflection glazing, ready to hang. Ships worldwide with free delivery to 30+ countries.
