Jan le Ducq
(The Hague 1629/1630 – 1676)

A Cavalier With A Monkey
Inscribed on the reverse No. 2

brown ink and bistre on beige paper

245 mm×155 mm

PROVENANCE:
August Grahl Collection (Lugt 1199) Estate of Professor August Grahl of Dresden sale, Sotheby, Wilkinson, Hodge, April 27-28, 1885, lot 191; Anonymous sale, lot 478 Dr. Max A. Goldstein, St. Louis, Missouri; Dr. Max A. Goldstein sale, Kende Galleries, New York, November 9, 1945, lot 19, illustrated (note in sale catalog: the drawing is reproduced in the portfolio illustrating all the drawings in the Grahl collection before dispersal) Private collection, New York

NOTE: The unusual scene depicted in this drawing is at first glance baffling. A fashionable young gentleman has released his pet monkey from its tether. The man’s hat has fallen to the ground and in its place sits the monkey grooming its master.

Since the middle ages monkeys have been kept as pets, a source of pleasure and amusement. As such their role paralleled that of court jester or fool. This theme was described in the literature and art of the period, most notably in a sheet of drawings by Johann Lucas Cranach in the Kestner Museum in Hanover. It depicts several sketches of a pet monkey, and a man labeled fool with a monkey on his shoulders. The monkey appears to be giving advice to his captor in essence making this a visualization of the concept of adhering to a "fools counsel". Jan Le Ducq has taken the theme one step further as this monkey has dispensed with talking and is engaged in grooming its owner. The traditional theme of a woman grooming a child was linked to then current beliefs that a well-groomed exterior was reflective of a clean interior. The act itself was regarded as a purification of the soul.

Le Ducq’s substitution of a monkey in the woman’s role turns the accepted iconography on its head. The monkey, always associated with vice and lust, thus puts these passions directly into his unwitting master’s head.

The viewer is warned against unleashing evil and following its lead.

The artist is thought to have been a student of Paulus Potter and Karel Dujardin. He specialized in painting cavaliers, animals and landscapes. His artistic career was relatively short as he abandoned it to join the military. His paintings hang in the museums’ of Copenhagen, Edinburgh, The Hague, Mainz, Montpellier, and Reims among others.

August Grahl (1791-1868) was born in Mecklenburg and studied at the Academy of Berlin. He was a portrait painter. In 1821 he made his first trip to Italy and began collecting old master drawings. He spent the rest of his life enriching his holdings finally amassing an important collection totaling several thousand drawings.

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