Crouching Monkey and Man's Head; Bones and Muscles [verso]

Executed entirely in graphite, the drawing employs loose, sketchy strokes that convey immediacy. On the front, the lines are slightly more defined to capture the monkey’s posture and the man's facial features, whereas the reverse uses thin, schematic lines to map bones and muscles. The use of wove paper provides a smooth surface that accentuates the subtle tonal variations of the pencil.

Created during Gauguin’s early Parisian period, the piece predates his later voyages to Tahiti and reflects his engagement with academic drawing practices. The work has remained within private collections before entering a museum holding of 19th‑century drawings, where it is catalogued as a study rather than a finished composition.

The drawing aligns with the broader 19th‑century interest in anatomical research and the Symbolist fascination with the animal as a metaphor for human traits. Gauguin’s simultaneous exploration of realistic observation and symbolic meaning places the work at the intersection of academic study and emerging modernist tendencies.