The Monkey

A self-taught animal painter born in London in 1864, Arthur Wardle exhibited at the Royal Academy at the age of sixteen. Noted for his portraits of big cats and pedigree dogs, he settled in the artistic neighbourhood of St John's Wood and worked in oils, watercolour and pastel. Elected a member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours in 1922, he held his first solo exhibition at the Fine Art Society in 1931 and remains one of the most celebrated British animal painters of the late Victorian era.

Perched on a chest with carved scrollwork, the monkey is caught in the midst of life within a domestic interior suggested by a carpet and an open book. The animal's expressive gaze, the supple handling of the fur and the dark ground concentrate the eye entirely on the figure. Wardle resists any sentimental reading: his subject retains its animal identity while revealing a personality seized with remarkable acuity.