The Mandrill

With these lines, German poet Rainer Maria Rilke opens the poem The Panther. Immediately, the tone is set. The caged animal – in a Parisian zoo – tries to walk off the constraints of its captivity and boredom within the small space allotted to it.

The contrast with The Mandrill by Oskar Kokoschka (1926) could not be greater. The monkey in the London zoo is as imprisoned as Rilke's panther in Paris. Yet Kokoschka paints the animal as if it were free. Nothing in the painting alludes to its caged existence. The thick layers of brightly colored paint emphasize the mandrill’s striking personality. “When I painted him, I saw: this is a wild, isolated fellow, almost my mirror image. Someone who wants to be alone,” Kokoschka said about his inspiration. Animals fascinated him, and apparently, he sometimes recognized himself in them.

The Mandrill is one of the public favorites of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. Now that the museum is closed for renovation, the KMSKA had the opportunity to present a selection of eight works from the Rotterdam collection at its reopening. These works will remain in Antwerp for five years. The popular monkey – who will celebrate his hundredth birthday here – is displayed in the Imago gallery, among portraits of distinguished citizens and children from the 17th century. Those usually depict the social roles their subjects wished to play in their time. In this way, they seem to contrast sharply with The Mandrill. A monkey with a social role seems contradictory. But is it really? If Kokoschka truly saw himself reflected in the untamed ape, then perhaps this work reveals how the artist saw his own position. Kokoschka swam against the tide of his era as much as he could, and acknowledged his darker sides. He even had a life-size doll made of his ex-lover Alma Mahler.

The Mandrill engages in dynamic relationships with the other paintings in the room. The Fisher Boy by Frans Hals seems just as unfazed and true to himself as the ape. Some adults seem to emerge slightly from their rigid painterly cages. Others contrast more starkly with the ‘free’ mandrill, staying poker-faced behind their self-imposed bars. Who here is truly themselves? Who wastes their days in boredom within an inescapable straitjacket? Who dares to be the rebellious Kokoschka?

This article previously appeared in ZAAL Z, the museum's magazine. For as little as 35 euros you will receive four editions that will immerse you in the fascinating world of the museum and its magnificent collection.