Drill and albino baboon
Reproduction
Object numberRCSSC/P 266
Scientific nameMandrillus leucophaeusPapio
CollectionHunterian Art
CategoryVisual works
Object nameAlbinism, Animal subjects (visual works), Oil paintings
TitleDrill and albino baboon
DescriptionPainting of a male drill and an albino baboon, unsigned, by George Stubbs, before 1789.
The male drill stands to the left of the picture, facing towards the right; in his right hand he holds a wooden staff while his left arm is raised. His left foot is slightly raised at the knee to rest on a stone. Facing him, the baboon is shown seated and hunched over, with his hands resting or perhaps examining his right knee.
The two animals shown in this painting were in the collections of animal dealers in London. The drill (left) was in the collection of William Gough, who owned an animal shop on Holborn Hill. The albino baboon (known as ‘the child of the sun’) was in the collection of George Bayly, a ‘bird and beast’ dealer in Piccadilly. The original title (‘Baboon and albino macaque’) reflects the confusion over the taxonomy of apes and monkeys that existed well into the 19th century.
The portrait was owned by John Hunter before 1793, and was among those displayed in his museum in Leicester Square.
Owner/user
transferred
Related objectsRCSHC/P 358RCSHC/1520
Physical Location
LocationOn display in the Hunterian Museum, Room 6: Leicester Square
Physical Information
Physical descriptionOil on millboard, 67cm by 97cm.
Bibliography
SourceZuckerman 1998
121-124
NotesContains brief account of Stubbs' paintings of monkeys. Describes this work as 'an albino hamadryas baboon with a drill'. Suggests that although the Earl of Shelburne kept a menagerie there is no record of these animals in the estate papers for Bowood.
SourceLe Fanu 1960
Transcript266. Baboon and albino Macaque monkey. Hunterian.
Oil on millboard, unsigned. 67 x 97cm. Restored by Johann Hell, 1951. The male baboon stands at the left facing to the right, a stick in his left hand and his right arm raised; the white monkey is seated at the right, facing towards the left. Clift 1816 # 2, 1820 # 24; Keith # 10. Exhibited: Liverpool 1951, Stubbs exhibition #. 21; Whitechapel 1957, Stubbs exhibition #. 54. Reproduced: Annals 1949, 4, 163. Basil Taylor Animal painting in England 1955 pl. 26. Clift describes the picture as 'two monkeys, male and female, the property of Lord Shelburne. Painted by George Stubbs for Mr Hunter.' Scrofulous glands and the parts of generation from the macaque are preserved in the Hunterian Museum, see Clift's manuscript catalogue (RCS Library 276. ha. 1, nos. 469 and 634 (81) where he says that this monkey was called the Child of the Sun, "probably by a showman." Hunter's Essays and Observations, edited by Richard Owen, 1861, 2, 16-17: "Bailey's Monkey of which I have a painting," identified by Owen as "albino variety of a Macacus," and "Mr Gough's Monkey of which I have a painting" identified as "The pig-faced Baboon, Papio porcarius Kuhl."
SourceKeith 1930
NotesIn the annotated copy in the RCS Museum archive the entry has been corrected, probably by Richard Burne, with the word 'Baboon' corrected to 'Drill' and 'Macaque' to 'Papio Hamadryas' [with male symbol].
Transcript10. Baboon and Macaque (albino) dissected by Hunter, and painted by G. Stubbs. (Hunterian).
SourceClift 1820
Transcript24. Portraits of two Monkeys, Male and Female, the property of Lord Shelburne. Painted by George Stubbs, Esq. RA for Mr Hunter.
SourceClift 1816
p.3, No.2
NotesManuscript list titled "A List of Paintings and Drawings framed and glazed, numbered according to the Situation in which they were placed round the rail of the Gallery in Mr. Hunter's museum in Castle Street Leicester Square2
Transcript2. A Male and Female Monkey. Painting in Oil on Millboard. By George Stubbs. There is some account of one or both of these monkeys in Hunterian MS.
"Lord Shelburne's Monkey" is one of them. W. C.
