Monkeys Boxing, from Monkey-ana

Discussion

FROM THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO’S CATALOG

This pugilistic print comes from Monkeyana , the satirical masterpiece by Thomas Landseer, the printmaker brother of the famed animal portraitist Edwin Landseer. Each of the 25 etchings in the series features misbehaving monkeys dressed in human clothes—whether impersonating Cupid or stomping on a copy of Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man . These prize fighters have drawn a raucous crowd, and the incongruous theatricality of the print is only increased by the inclusion of a line from Macbeth , William Shakespeare’s play about a power-crazed Scottish king.

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