Gabriel von Max
Entsagung (Renunciation, or perhaps Temperance)
(monkey holding an object, possibly a box or tin, or a flask, or a book)
circa 1901-1915
oil on wood panel
25,9 x 20,0 cm (10 3/16 x 7 5/16 in.)
signed lower right: G. v. Max
inscribed upper left: Entsagung [Renunciation]
Exhibition History:
2011 "Gabriel von Max: Be-tailed Cousins and Phantasms of the Soul," Frye Art Museum, Seattle, July 9-Oct. 30, 2011
"The Apes & Us: A Century of Representations of Our Closest Relatives," Stanford University, California, Hohbach Hall, Green Library, January 9, 2024 - June 21, 2024
Publication History:
Aleš Filip and Roman Musil, eds., Gabriel von Max (1840-1915) (Prague: Arbor vitae, 2011), ill. 75, pg. 58.
Jo-Anne Birnie Danzker, ed., Gabriel von Max (Seattle: Frye Art Museum, 2011), ill. 40, pg. 52.
Alain Jaubert, director, La Beauté Animale [The Animal Beauty], documentary film (Ivry sur Seine: Les Poissons Volants, 2012).
Jessica Riskin and Caroline Winterer, The Apes & Us: A Century of Representations of Our Closest Relatives (Stanford, California: Silicon Valley Archives/Stanford University Libraries, 2024), ill. at pg. 12.
The object that this monkey is holding is somewhat of a mystery. Gabriel von Max entitled the painting rather obscurely as Entsagung [Renunciation, or perhaps Temperance]. The auction house which sold the painting to The Daulton Collection entitled it descriptively as Kleiner Affe mit
Büchse [Small Monkey with Box]. The object may in fact be a box or tin, a flask or canteen, a book (perhaps a prayer book), or something entirely different.
