Figure of a Monkey on a Dog (c. 1745): Art, History and Details

Figure of a Monkey on a Dog (c. 1745) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Villeroy Factory.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Images of this type, monkeys dressed in human clothing and engaged in human pursuits, were called singeries and were represented in 18th-century French painting and decorative art. This particular figurine was based on a book of engravings that provided designs for contemporary craftsmen and was published by animal painter Christopher Huet in 1748.

Object facts

• Title: Figure of a Monkey on a Dog
• Date: c. 1745
• Creator attribution: Villeroy Factory
• Culture: France, Mennecy, 18th century
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: soft-paste porcelain with enamel decoration
• Dimensions: Overall: 15.9 cm (6 1/4 in.)
• Collection: Decorative Arts
• Department: Decorative Art and Design
• Accession number: 1953.269

A detail from the museum

This monkey may have once held a stick in its outstretched left hand.

Collection credit

Gift of Rosenberg & Stiebel, Inc.

Further reading listed by the museum

• Honey, William Bowyer. French Porcelain of the 18th Century. London: Faber and Faber, 1950.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.