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Christopher Tombs Ltd
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Rare Anthropomorphised Monkeys - Oil On Canvas
Rare Anthropomorphised monkeys in an Asian village setting.
Oil on canvas
61 x 100 cm
Label verso for the Norcross Transfer and Storage company, Charlottesville, North Carolina, USA.
This humorous painting is a lively and ingeniously painted pastiche of formal Chinese landscapes. In the distance there are pagodas on rocky hills, and a willow curves elegantly into the painting from an outcrop at the right. Storks complement the scene, and at the right there is a yellow-crested cockatoo resting on a branch. The cockatoo may be a hint that the painting was not produced in China, since the bird is native to East Timor and Indonesia. Yellow cockatoos are known in Hong Kong, however, since at least the middle of the Twentieth Century, where they are the descendants of escaped pets.
The usual human staffage of Chinese landscapes has been replaced in this painting by monkeys dressed in human clothes. They are performing a range of humorous antics throughout the painting. Two are playing on a see saw in the centre, while a third in a conical peasant’s hat holds a precarious lantern over them, oblivious to two further monkeys craning down from a tree top trying to grab it. Two more are playing blindman’s buff at the left, while above them all a monkey sage in a white turban watches from the balcony of a bamboo house, unaware that an attendant is about to hit him on the head with a fan. At the right there is boisterous noise and movement where a monkey has fallen off a ball she is trying to sit on, losing her hat in the process, while a black and white Pekinese barks excitedly at her and another monkey plays the flute.
Despite the Asian setting our painting may equally have been painted in the West, and perhaps in North America. The earliest provenance is a label from the Norcross Transfer and Storage company, Charlottesville, North Carolina, who were trading from new premises in 1924. The graphic style of the monkey figures and their lively reactive quality has parallels with American comic illustration of the period. Humorous monkeys have a place in traditional Chinese art, but they are not usually shown as humanly as this or wearing clothes. A rare example of anthropomorphised animal art is Ink Play of Cat and Mice by Pu Hsin-yu (1896–1963) in which mice drink and carouse in front of a sleeping cat. The clothes worn by some of the monkeys – particularly the feathered straw hats and smocks worn by the four central figures suggest a Western painter interpreting the idiom. Monkey paintings, known as singeries, have a long-established tradition in Western European art, in which the dressed monkey is a satirical comment on human habits and customs. Using monkeys as a pictorial comment on manners first appears in the margins of medieval illuminated manuscripts. A monkey looked at themself in a mirror in a marginal illustration to the Isabella Breviary, late 1480s–before 1497 (British Library). But the genre reached its height in the Baroque and Rococo, with paintings such as A Monkey Barber Surgeon’s Establishment by David Teniers II (1610–1690) in the collection of the Wellcome Foundation. In the Eighteenth Centurymonkey-themed paintings and decorative arts were so popular that in the 1750s Meissen produced an entire set of monkey orchestra figurines, an example of which was acquired by King Louis XV.4 These were inspired by the French animal painter Christophe Huet who painted an elaborate singerie for the wall decoration of a room in the Chateau de Chantilly, where monkeys are shown in a fantasy ofChinese costume.
Our painting is a delightful example of this tradition. The treatment is highly accomplished. The serene landscape is a skilful homage to the style of Chinese landscapes, while the figures are lively and freely painted. The draperies of the costume have a nervous lightness and the faces are expressive, mobile and highly individual. Each figure is given a discernible personality and the whole scene is animated by a sense of lifeand laughter.
1. The Hong Kong population is now the second largest in the world. Wild Creatures Hong Kong
2. The building was converted c.2014 into Norcross Apartments
3. Expressions of Humor in Chinese Painting and Calligraphy, Northern Branch Galleries exhibition January 1st – 25th March 2017
4. Monkey Orchestra by Meissenat
Our painting is a delightful example of this tradition. .
Delivery within the asking Price is included within the Uk.
Shipping is available too so please do contact us for a quote.
Height is 61cm (24.0inches)
Width is 100cm (39.4inches)
Depth is 5cm (2.0inches)
More images available upon request.
Thanks for looking Chris 07778655965.
Internal Reference: Monkey 0001
SellerChristopher Tombs Ltd
View all stock from
Christopher Tombs Ltd
Unit 96
Northwick Business centre
Blockely, Moreton-in-Marsh
Gloucester
GL56 9RF
Tel : 01386700085
Non UK callers : +44 1386700085
Get directions to Christopher Tombs Ltd
Oil on canvas
61 x 100 cm
Label verso for the Norcross Transfer and Storage company, Charlottesville, North Carolina, USA.
This humorous painting is a lively and ingeniously painted pastiche of formal Chinese landscapes. In the distance there are pagodas on rocky hills, and a willow curves elegantly into the painting from an outcrop at the right. Storks complement the scene, and at the right there is a yellow-crested cockatoo resting on a branch. The cockatoo may be a hint that the painting was not produced in China, since the bird is native to East Timor and Indonesia. Yellow cockatoos are known in Hong Kong, however, since at least the middle of the Twentieth Century, where they are the descendants of escaped pets.
The usual human staffage of Chinese landscapes has been replaced in this painting by monkeys dressed in human clothes. They are performing a range of humorous antics throughout the painting. Two are playing on a see saw in the centre, while a third in a conical peasant’s hat holds a precarious lantern over them, oblivious to two further monkeys craning down from a tree top trying to grab it. Two more are playing blindman’s buff at the left, while above them all a monkey sage in a white turban watches from the balcony of a bamboo house, unaware that an attendant is about to hit him on the head with a fan. At the right there is boisterous noise and movement where a monkey has fallen off a ball she is trying to sit on, losing her hat in the process, while a black and white Pekinese barks excitedly at her and another monkey plays the flute.
Despite the Asian setting our painting may equally have been painted in the West, and perhaps in North America. The earliest provenance is a label from the Norcross Transfer and Storage company, Charlottesville, North Carolina, who were trading from new premises in 1924. The graphic style of the monkey figures and their lively reactive quality has parallels with American comic illustration of the period. Humorous monkeys have a place in traditional Chinese art, but they are not usually shown as humanly as this or wearing clothes. A rare example of anthropomorphised animal art is Ink Play of Cat and Mice by Pu Hsin-yu (1896–1963) in which mice drink and carouse in front of a sleeping cat. The clothes worn by some of the monkeys – particularly the feathered straw hats and smocks worn by the four central figures suggest a Western painter interpreting the idiom. Monkey paintings, known as singeries, have a long-established tradition in Western European art, in which the dressed monkey is a satirical comment on human habits and customs. Using monkeys as a pictorial comment on manners first appears in the margins of medieval illuminated manuscripts. A monkey looked at themself in a mirror in a marginal illustration to the Isabella Breviary, late 1480s–before 1497 (British Library). But the genre reached its height in the Baroque and Rococo, with paintings such as A Monkey Barber Surgeon’s Establishment by David Teniers II (1610–1690) in the collection of the Wellcome Foundation. In the Eighteenth Centurymonkey-themed paintings and decorative arts were so popular that in the 1750s Meissen produced an entire set of monkey orchestra figurines, an example of which was acquired by King Louis XV.4 These were inspired by the French animal painter Christophe Huet who painted an elaborate singerie for the wall decoration of a room in the Chateau de Chantilly, where monkeys are shown in a fantasy ofChinese costume.
Our painting is a delightful example of this tradition. The treatment is highly accomplished. The serene landscape is a skilful homage to the style of Chinese landscapes, while the figures are lively and freely painted. The draperies of the costume have a nervous lightness and the faces are expressive, mobile and highly individual. Each figure is given a discernible personality and the whole scene is animated by a sense of lifeand laughter.
1. The Hong Kong population is now the second largest in the world. Wild Creatures Hong Kong
2. The building was converted c.2014 into Norcross Apartments
3. Expressions of Humor in Chinese Painting and Calligraphy, Northern Branch Galleries exhibition January 1st – 25th March 2017
4. Monkey Orchestra by Meissenat
Our painting is a delightful example of this tradition. .
Delivery within the asking Price is included within the Uk.
Shipping is available too so please do contact us for a quote.
Height is 61cm (24.0inches)
Width is 100cm (39.4inches)
Depth is 5cm (2.0inches)
More images available upon request.
Thanks for looking Chris 07778655965.
Internal Reference: Monkey 0001
Price
Click here to message the seller The price has been listed in British Pounds.
Conversion rates as of 22/MAY/2025. Euro & Dollar prices will vary and should only be used as a guide.
Always confirm final price with dealer.
Category Antique Pictures / Engravings / Art
> Antique Oil Paintings
Period 19th Century Antiques
Item code as605a418 / Monkey 0001
Status For Sale
£34500.00 
$46312.80
€41065.35
$46312.80
€41065.35
Looking to Buy?
Arrange a final price and delivery details directly with the dealerClick here to message the seller
Conversion rates as of 22/MAY/2025. Euro & Dollar prices will vary and should only be used as a guide.
Always confirm final price with dealer.
View all stock from
Christopher Tombs Ltd
Unit 96Northwick Business centre
Blockely, Moreton-in-Marsh
Gloucester
GL56 9RF
Tel : 01386700085
Non UK callers : +44 1386700085
Get directions to Christopher Tombs Ltd
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Chestnut Bay Hunter Horse Paintings By Henry Barraud
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Grandmother johanna,first wife of Mr.E.Teubert
Oil on Canvas By Andre Kohn.
Mona Lisa 18th Oil Portrait Painting After Leonard
Pair Of 18th Century Antique Paintings, Portraits
A 19th century oil on tin after Caspar Netscher.
Antique Genoese painting from the 18th century
Oil on canvas signed Thomas Hooper
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