Object Status:
Unlocated
Accession Date:
December 29, 1808
Primary Source Reference:
Peale Museum Accessions Book, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, p. 37
Additional Source Text:
Poulson's American Daily Advertiser (Philadelphia), 4 Jan 1809 reads: "Case of Monkeys, a Poet, Painter and Sitter, in a painting room appropriately fitted up. This is the beginning of a collection of monkeys representing different professions and trades."
Notes:
Singerie is a French word for “monkey trick” and is the name given to arts depicting monkeys aping human behavior. Most singerie was in the form of paintings, prints, or interior decoration such as wallpaper and tapestries, but the Museum's display was a three-dimensional model (in a "Case") using taxidermied animals. Search singerie for two other similar displays in the Museum.
The Peale Museum's display may have resembled (sans poet) the scene depicted in this ca. 1739 painting "Singerie:The Painter," by French artist Christophe Huet (1700-1759).
"In 1809 Mr. Peale commenced a collection of stuffed monkeys, dressed as human beings, and engaged in some of the occupations familiar to man. The first exhibition represented a poet and a painter, with another individual sitting for his portrait in the artists' studio. Others followed, and in each new group some comical effect was obtained. Monkeys were represented as engaged in the various trades, and the contrast between their grave occupations and their mischievous faces and ridiculous attitudes was extremely amusing. Peale's monkey tradesmen live in the memory of many aged Philadelphians." J. Thomas Scharf and Thompson Westcott, in their History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, 3 vols. (Philadelphia, 1884), 2: 947
Search "singerie" for two other similar displays in the Museum.
