“The Runaway Match” is an oil painting created in 1877 by William Holbrook Beard, an artist associated with the Romanticism movement. The artwork belongs to the genre of animal painting and caricature.
The artwork depicts an interior scene where anthropomorphic monkeys are dressed in human clothing. The central figure appears to be a young female monkey in a pink dress, being addressed by a male monkey in formal attire. Other monkey characters observe the interaction in the background. The scene is rich in detail, with elements such as a grandfather clock, scattered books, and patterned wallpaper contributing to the domestic setting. The expressive faces and postures of the monkey characters imbue the scene with a sense of narrative and drama, in line with the traditions of Romanticism and caricature.
