A Giant Monkey in Uniform Holding up Pierrot and a Man with a Whip
Medium
Lithograph touched with pen and brown ink and graphite
Dimensions
sheet: 21 7/8 x 17 in. (55.5 x 43.2 cm) image: 19 3/8 x 15 3/4 in. (49.2 x 40 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1990
Accession Number
1990.1064.1
Tags
Art Historical Context
Behold *A Giant Monkey in Uniform up Pierrot and a with a Whip*, an anonymous lithograph from after 1825, likely created by a French, Austrian, or German artist during the early 19th century's vibrant printmaking boom. This whimsical caricature captures a towering monkey dressed in military garb triumphantly hoisting the sad-faced clown Pierrot—a staple of commedia dell'arte theater—and a stern man wielding a whip. Measuring nearly 20 by 16 inches, the image bursts with satirical energy, poking fun at authority, folly, and human-animal hierarchies in a style typical of Europe's burgeoning cari...