Cleveland Museum of Art

The Monkey and the Cat

Abraham HondiusLinkedCulture matchlcp-89b7303099a4

Date: probably 1670s
Medium: oil on canvas
Culture: Netherlands
Department: European Painting and Sculpture
Institution: Cleveland Museum of Art
Object ID: 149770

From the Cleveland Museum of Art record

This picture interprets one of Aesop’s ancient Greek fables (or probably the more contemporary interpretation by Jean de la Fontaine, even more famous at the time), which warns of the dangers of flattery. A monkey sweet-talks a cat into pulling scalding chestnuts out of the fire. The cat finishes the risky and painful task to discover that the monkey has already gobbled up nearly all of them.

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Provenance & credit

As published by the source institution. Coverage varies — not every institution's open-data feed includes ownership history.

Credit line: Gift of The Butkin Foundation
Provenance: 1979-: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio | 1974-1979: The Butkin Foundation, Cleveland, OH, by gift to the Cleveland Museum of Art 1 | c. 1968-1974: Noah Butkin [1918-1980], Cleveland, OH, probably by exchange to The Butkin Foundation | Until c. 1968: (Judson Art Galleries, Kenilworth, IL, sold to Noah Butkin) | Probably until the mid-1960s: (Central Picture Galleries, New York, sold to Judson Art Galleries)1