Saturday, March 26, 2011

Painting of the Day: Brazilian Monkeys by Sir Edwin Landseer, 1842

Brazillian Monkeys
Sir Edwin Landseer
1842
The Royal Collection
Commissioned by Queen Victoria
Monkeys! Monkeys smaller than a pineapple! How wonderful. Now, I have to say that I don’t have much occasion to see tiny monkeys. So, I find paintings such as this 1842 oil by the greatest depicter of animals, Sir Edwin Landseer, to be quite interesting. Imagine how it was received when it was first created. This is where I want to say, “its viewers must have gone ape.” But, I wouldn’t make such a cheap pun.


Though Landseer’s works included portraits, he was best known for his paintings of animals. He usually painted dogs and horses and other animals native to Britain, however, every so often, he’d have a chance to have some exotic sitters. I’m glad that he did. It would have been a shame is these little simians had been lost to the ages.



2 comments:

Dashwood said...

Perhaps these are ordinary, regulation sized monkeys but the Pineapple, rather, is a spectacular, gigantic, nine-day wonder fruit.

Joseph Crisalli said...

Oh! That's an equally exciting concept!