The bear, seated on a luxurious tasselled cushion that stresses his regal status holds a struggling monkey dressed in a skirt and a lace collar across his knees. The bear has pulled aside the monkey's skirt and is whipping it with a birch. An open book lies alongside them. The subject was probably borrowed from a political cartoon of the first half of the 19th century. The bear was as a rule associated with Russia; the monkey with Napoleon, and later with France.