"The Curious One", Antoine Pierre Mongin

Here a young man uses a ladder to climb over a garden wall. The sign at his right translates into School for Young Ladies under the Direction of Mrs. Wachsam—wachsam being the German word for watchful. Apparently, overcome by curiosity, the man cannot resist his desire to see the young women concealed behind the wall. Scenes with amorous, sometimes voyeuristic overtones are common in the work of Mongin. The artist also seems fascinated with depicting the exact details of his settings. In 1824, a