Zacharie Noterman

Zacharie Noterman or Zacharias Notermann (1820 in Ghent – 1890 in Paris) was a Belgian painter and printmaker who specialized in scenes with monkeys engaging in human activities (the so-called singeries), as well as in paintings of dogs.

He was initially trained by his older brother Emmanuel Noterman, a genre and animal painter active in Antwerp.

Noterman was particularly interested in the subject of singeries, which are humoristic paintings and etchings of monkeys engaging in human activities.

The monkeys in the scenes are often dressed in costumes which adds comedy to their 'aping' of a specific human action (often a vice such as smoking or gambling) or occupation such as a dentist, lawyer, painter, art critic, etc.

[8] In particular, his singeries were very popular and between 1863 and 1866 he was commissioned by the publisher Cadart in Paris to make three original etchings on the subject.