In the summer of 1869, no fewer than 14 monkeys inhabit the garden house of the city villa owned by Gabriel von Max (1840-1915). The internationally celebrated Munich painter, Darwinist, and early Theosophist is in the process of assembling one of the most significant private collections of prehistory, anthropology, zoology, and ethnology. His monkeys serve as living study subjects and beloved companions, increasingly invading his symbolically influenced artistic world, where they act as "art critics," "scholars," and various other characters like us. Alongside raptured saints and deathly pale beauties, the monkeys become his favorite subject, subsequently populating significant museums and private collections. Karin Althaus, curator at the Munich Lenbachhaus and an expert on Gabriel von Max, has selected the most beautiful paintings from all of his work groups for this book.