Artwork
Still Life with Monkey, Fruits, and Flowers
Still Life with Monkey, Fruits, and Flowers is an oil painting by the Rococo painting artist Jean-Baptiste Oudry. It dates from 1724 and is held in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
The painting shows a monkey perched among ripe fruits and a bouquet of flowers, arranged on a tabletop surface. The inclusion of a playful primate alongside abundant produce and blossoms carries symbolic weight often associated with transience and moral warning in 18th‑century French still‑life iconography.
Technique & Style
The work is classified as a still life, a genre in which the artist arranged depictions of fruit and flowers alongside a monkey.
Jean-Baptiste Oudry executed Still Life with Monkey, Fruits, and Flowers in 1724 using oil paint applied to a canvas support. The work is classified as a still life, a genre in which the artist arranged depictions of fruit and flowers alongside a monkey. As an oil painting, the piece relies on the medium's capacity for blending and texture to render the natural subjects. The composition focuses on the formal arrangement of these organic elements, characteristic of the still life tradition.
History & Provenance
Still Life with Monkey, Fruits, and Flowers is part of the Art Institute of Chicago's collection, listed under inventory number 1985.647. The work has been featured in exhibitions at the museum, including "French Painting, 1650–1850" (1985) and "Masterpieces of the Art Institute of Chicago" (2019).
Overview
Jean-Baptiste Oudry's 'Still Life with Monkey, Fruits, and Flowers,' executed in 1724, is a quintessential example of French Rococo still life painting. The composition centers on a stone ledge where a monkey sits in profile, its hand extended toward a ceramic bowl overflowing with peaches, grapes, and a halved melon. Scattered fruit pieces on the ledge enhance the sense of naturalistic abundance and transience.
Behind the central figure, a vase of flowers rests on the ledge, while a second floral arrangement sits on the ground to the right, creating a balanced, multi-layered arrangement. Oudry, renowned for his mastery of texture and light, renders the fur of the monkey, the translucent skin of the fruit, and the delicate petals with precise realism. This work reflects the artist's early career focus on still life before his appointment as the official painter to King Louis XV, a position he secured largely through his celebrated hunting scenes and tapestry designs.
The painting demonstrates the 18th-century French interest in the interplay between the exotic and the domestic, utilizing the monkey as a symbol of nature's unpredictability amidst human order. The oil medium allows for the subtle gradations of tone that define the forms against a neutral, dark background, emphasizing the tactile qualities of the objects.
Context
The inclusion of a primate within a still-life setting aligns with a broader eighteenth‑century French fascination with exotic animals and the display of abundance. Oudry, known for his animal paintings, often integrated such subjects to explore the interplay between nature’s vitality and human‑crafted order.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Jean-Baptiste Oudry was a French Rococo painter, engraver, and tapestry designer. He is particularly well known for his naturalistic pictures of animals and his hunt pieces depicting game. His son, Jacques-Charles Oudry, was also a painter.
