3-008-670 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The International Exhibition - "The Bad Neighbours", by C. Verlat, 1862. '...here is this wicked Belgian painter representing an incident of monkey life which, in this covetous, mammon-worshipping, shopkeeping, billsticking, advertising age...might, we fear, be paralleled among neighbours by any of us without going far...Look, too, at that sly urchin begging and trading upon his weakness. The likeness throughout is certainly not flattering, but is there not a resemblance? And, even if a caricature, may we not find some a lesson in the satire?...one would have thought it quite supererogatory to place over the cage the caution, "Defense de toucher aux animaux." The showman - the proprietor of the exhibition curtain, the drum, trumpet, cups, and dice - is surely a humorous fellow. This is a very odd and very amusing subject for a picture, but it has still greater claims upon attention as a capital painting remarkable for colour and effect'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.