First Fleet artwork collection

Drawing of a snake moving across an area of grass, against an otherwise plain background. The snake is depicted in left profile, with its head raised parallel to the ground and its mouth open as if about to strike. Its body undulates towards the right of the composition, across a patch of ground which is represented by a green wash overlaid with detail of vegetation in a darker green. The snake is coloured brown above overlaid with white-grey dots, with a pattern of four yellow dots at repeated at regular intervals along its length. The underside is pale yellow.

• Port Jackson Painter]
• The drawing is unsigned and undated.
• The drawing is inscribed in brown ink at the bottom left corner with the number "113" on its side, and on the reverse "112". These refer to the pre-1984 numbering system for the Port Jackson Collection.
• The drawing is window mounted in cream paper.
• The drawing appears to be an almost exact copy of the snake "No. 5" in John White's Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales (1790), where it is described by George Shaw and illustrated with an engraving after an original drawing by Sarah Stone (plate 45). The drawing differs from the engraving in the number of coils in the snake's body, and the detail of the vegetation.
• The snake was more recently identified in the 1962 edition of White's Journal (ed. A.H. Chisholm, published Sydney, Angus and Robertson) as the Diamond Python Morelia spilota.
• The author of this catalogue record is Suzanne Stenning.
• By permission of the trustees of the Natural History Museum (London).
• Two sets of transparencies held in the Natural History Museum (London) General Library and Picture Library: Picture Library order number 12657
• Sir Joseph Banks bequest 1827
• Data sheet available.
• White, John. Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales. J. Debrett, London, 1790.