Two Boys Drowning A Monkey In A Rock Pool Painting

Two boys are engaged in the act of drowning a small monkey in a rock pool on a lonely beach. They are so engrossed in their cruel act that they appear to be unaware of the presence of a female figure nearby. This woman has had her eyes erased (by blood? a wound?), and either has no arms or, if she does, they are held firmly behind her back. She therefore stands in a pose of passivity, failing to intervene in the cruel scene that plays out before her. I think of this woman as the boys' mother. I made this image as a riposte to the famous Victorian painting "The Boyhood Of Sir Walter Raleigh" by John Everett Millais - a romantic (verging on sentimental) depiction of Raleigh and his male friend as children, listening in awe to the tales of a well-seasoned sailor as he points out to sea. I wanted to invert the sentimentality of this image (whilst maintaining the Victorian style of painting) and show the other side of childhood - a propensity for cruelty and a casual lack of empathy for other living creatures. If this ability to empathise does not grow, a psychopathic personality results. The normal development of empathy in a teenager / young man is what the American poet (and Men's Movement exponent in the 1990s), Robert Bly, called "learning to shudder".

Painting:Oil on Canvas

Original:One-of-a-kind Artwork

Size:15.7 W x 15.7 H x 1.6 D in

Delivery Time:Typically 5-7 business days for domestic shipments, 10-14 business days for international shipments.