--- title: The Story Behind Hansel Mieth's Classic Portrait of an Angry Monkey description: Photographer Hansel Mieth's own attitude toward her famous 1938 portrait of a soaking wet rhesus monkey was, to put it bluntly, conflicted canonical: https://time.com/3491159/behind-the-picture-hansel-mieths-wet-unhappy-monkey/ author: Ben Cosgrove article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-07-10T16:52:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:07:28.162Z og:title: The Story Behind Hansel Mieth's Classic Portrait of an Angry Monkey og:description: Photographer Hansel Mieth's own attitude toward her famous 1938 portrait of a soaking wet rhesus monkey was, to put it bluntly, conflicted og:url: https://time.com/3491159/behind-the-picture-hansel-mieths-wet-unhappy-monkey/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf37e20a37ffd6567/6987600c428a9e169bcc4776/hansel-mieth-monkey-01.jpg?branch=production&width=905&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 905 og:image:height: 509 og:image:alt: A rhesus monkey in Puerto Rico, 1938. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Story Behind Hansel Mieth's Classic Portrait of an Angry Monkey twitter:description: Photographer Hansel Mieth's own attitude toward her famous 1938 portrait of a soaking wet rhesus monkey was, to put it bluntly, conflicted twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf37e20a37ffd6567/6987600c428a9e169bcc4776/hansel-mieth-monkey-01.jpg?branch=production&width=905&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Behind the Picture: Hansel Mieth's Wet, Unhappy Monkey > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Jul 10, 2014 4:52 PM UTC  A rhesus monkey in Puerto Rico, 1938. A rhesus monkey in Puerto Rico, 1938.Hansel Mieth—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Jul 10, 2014 4:52 PM UTC It is, without question, one of the most famous, most frequently reproduced animal photographs ever made. But photographer Hansel Mieth’s own attitude toward her 1938 portrait of a sodden rhesus monkey hunched in the water off of Puerto Rico was, to put it bluntly, conflicted. In fact, the German-born Mieth (1909–1998) memorably called the creature in the picture “the monkey on my back.” As Mieth explained in a 1993 interview with John Loengard, published in his book, [_LIFE Photographers: What They Saw_](http://www.amazon.com/Life-Photographers-What-They-Saw/dp/0821225189), she made the photograph while covering a Harvard Medical School primate study on tiny Cayo Santiago, off the east coast of Puerto Rico: --- > “” --- When she got back to New York, Mieth learned that the joke around the LIFE offices was that she’d produced a striking portrait of Henry Luce, the founder and publisher of TIME, LIFE, _Fortune_ and other magazines: evidently, some of her colleagues felt that the rhesus in the water looked like their boss. When asked by Loengard, six decades later, if she felt the portrait did resemble Luce, Mieth was diplomatic. --- > “” --- Today, the monkey on Mieth’s back still commands our gaze, inviting us—perhaps challenging us—to project our own fears, anxieties and speculations on to a picture, and a primate, that never gets old. FINAL NOTE: While a half-dozen lesser pictures from the assignment in Puerto Rico were published in the Jan. 2, 1939, issue of LIFE, Mieth’s now-iconic monkey photo appeared a few weeks later, in the Jan. 16 issue—accompanied by the caption, “A misogynist seeks solitude in the Caribbean off Puerto Rico.” According to the magazine, a primatologist explained that “the chatter of innumerable female monkeys had impelled this neurotic bachelor to seek escape from the din” by fleeing the jungle and making his way into the waves. Seventy-five years later, that particular theory about how and why the rhesus was out there in the water still sounds as reasonable as any other. _Ben Cosgrove is the Editor of LIFE.com_  A rhesus monkey in Puerto Rico, 1938. 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