Orangutang n.d.

Editor: This is Edwin Henry Landseer's "Orangutang," a graphite drawing on paper. It’s, well, strikingly… human. I'm captivated by how expressive its face is. What do you make of it? Curator: Landseer, wasn’t he the painter of noble stags and Queen Victoria’s pets? To see him sketching an orangutan like this… it feels almost subversive! Look at the almost imperceptible details – the furrow of the brow, the slight downturn of the mouth. Editor: It’s definitely thoughtful… even melancholic. Curator: Exactly. I wonder, was he pondering our place in the grand scheme of things? Or perhaps Landseer simply wanted to observe this creature's remarkable complexity. Look how it holds the stick. Deliberately? Thoughtfully? Are those human-like hands, almost beckoning us? It's unsettlingly brilliant. Do you feel like Landseer is almost toying with the idea of a ‘missing link’ here, stirring up those 19th-century Darwinian debates? Editor: I hadn't thought of that! It's as if the orangutan itself is contemplating evolution. Is that too much of a read? Curator: (chuckles) Honey, art invites a multiplicity of reads! This image dances between scientific study and sentimental portrait, leaving us to ponder where the animal ends, and the human begins… or if there ever really was a boundary. Editor: So much for a quick sketch. Landseer sneaks in a real mind-bender! Curator: Absolutely. Makes you see those cute dog portraits in a whole new, potentially primate-tinged, light, doesn't it?