A Row in the Jungle, 1863
Watercolour
Painted only a few years after the publication of On the Origin of Species, this watercolour reflects Darwin’s new vision of nature, where all living things are 'entangled' or interacting. There is a rich profusion of competing plants and animals. A tiger creeps stealthily through the jungle, but is spotted by a group of rhesus macaque monkeys. The male macaques warn and scold, while the females with young retreat into the dense foliage. Wolf probably observed this kind of defensive reaction at the Zoological Gardens in Regent’s Park, where Darwin also studied primate expressions and behaviour. A few years later Wolf contributed drawings of a 'pleased' monkey to Darwin’s Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872).
Zoological Society of London