Credit: BONHAMS

The decisive brush strokes are not the most notable feature of this painting, nor the powerful colour combinations. It is the artist and the artist's mentor — Congo the chimpanzee and Desmond Morris, respectively — that are the main points of interest. The painting, along with two others of Congo's, came up for auction at Bonhams, London, earlier this week.

Morris trained as an ethologist and has long been a painter himself. In the 1950s, he was the host of the television series Zootime, and it was here that Congo came to public attention. This picture was produced by the chimpanzee when he was three years old.

Congo was neither the first nor the last of ape artists, and his talent remains a question for experts in the disparate fields of art appreciation and animal behaviour. But his celebrity status has undoubtedly made his oeuvre more collectable.