Monkey with Skull, Bronze, Circa 1900, By the German Sculptor Hugo Wolfgang Reinhold

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Hugo Wolfgang Reinhard
Oberlahnstein 1853 - 1900 Berlin
Monkey with Skull, circa 1900
Bronze, signed
Foundry: Gladenbeck "HG"
Size: approx. … Read more Hugo Wolfgang Reinhard
Oberlahnstein 1853 - 1900 Berlin
Monkey with Skull, circa 1900
Bronze, signed
Foundry: Gladenbeck "HG"
Size: approx. 12.5 x 6 x 8 cm, plus 2 cm base
Cast circa 1900

The fate of the "Monkey with Skull" and its creator, Wolfgang Hugo Reinhard, could not be more different. Immediately after Reinhard presented the sculpture at the Great Berlin Art Exhibition of 1893 as his final project for his studies at the Royal Academy of Arts in Berlin, the Berlin sculpture foundry Gladenbeck & Sohn offered to produce licensed casts. These went not only to private collectors but also to many international scientific institutions. They can still be admired today: at the Royal College of Surgeons in London, the Medico-Surgical Society in Aberdeen, the Boston Medical Library, and the Department of Zoology at the University of Edinburgh. The most famous location is probably a Russian

specimen: It adorned (and still adorns) Vladimir Ilyich Lenin's desk.

While the sculpture's fame and renown grew steadily, Rheinhold was almost forgotten after his early death. Only after an exhibition in Aberdeen in 1989 did serious biographical research begin. Most of what has been gathered about Rheinhold since then has only been published in the last 15 years.

Rheinhold was not only a sculptor but also studied philosophy.

He was also a co-founder of a "German Society for Ethical Culture." Perhaps this explains the multifaceted meaning of his "Monkey." It not only represents a decidedly humorous commentary on the Darwinism debate but, with the Genesis quote "Eritis sicut deus" ("You will be like God"), simultaneously appeals to the ethical responsibility of all science. This piece has an attribution mark,
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