Cats in Art: The Folly of Innocence (Paton)

From my continuing weekly Sunday series of cats in art.  In my first post on 1 July on the artist Frank Paton, I was using some ideas from the coffee table book, The Cat in Art, by Stefano Zuffi.  In researching Paton I uncovered several other cat works, so the entire month of Sundays in July will be devoted to him.

Image credit artnet galleries, here [click to enlarge].   The Folly of Innocence, Frank Paton, 1881, oil on canvas, 17" x 14", private collection.

The poor kitty above is about to traffic with some bees, with a likely unfortunate outcome.  We once had a cat we called Charlotte (because I maintain that humans never really know what a cat's name is, only what we decide to call them) who liked to bat at bumblebees as they visited low flowers.

Once day poor Charlotte came limping home with a paw swollen to twice its normal size.  Not knowing what was wrong, we made the the trip to the vet.  After ruling out broken bones or wounds, the vet diagnosed bee sting, and the swelling went away in a couple of days.

We never again saw Charlotte batting at bumblebees.

As for the painting, Paton again demonstrates his mastery of the sweet feline face.