Temperance 

Gabriel von Max painted this oil on canvas titled “Temperance.” The work captures the Victorian era’s fascination with science, and its anxieties about the blurred lines between humans and animals. The simian figure—a monkey in human clothing, slumped with drink—invites viewers to consider evolutionary theory. This reflects both the groundbreaking work of Charles Darwin and the social anxieties it produced. The painting cleverly uses familiar visual codes of portraiture but twists them. It suggests a critique of human folly by projecting it onto the animal world. Is von Max satirizing human failings through this image, or reinforcing a sense of human superiority by contrasting us with the "lower" animal? By consulting period writings on science, philosophy, and social reform, we can better understand the painting’s role in the debates of its time, a time of immense social change and cultural anxiety.