Cats in Art: The White Cat (Bonnard)

From my continuing weekly Sunday series of cats in art. I'm using some ideas from the coffee table book, The Cat in Art, by Stefano Zuffi.

This is part 3 of 8 of a multiweek study of the cat art of Pierre Bonnard, a French painter (1867-1947). In this series I've moved beyond the two pieces featured by Zuffi and am now studying the rest of Bonnard's cat paintings in chronological order.

 

Image credit WikiPaintings, The White Cat, Pierre Bonnard, 1894, oil on canvas, held by Musee d'Orsay, Paris, France.

 

Since I have no comments from Zuffi, I get to be the analyst/critic here.  Basically we have a disturbed cat, arching its back, almost rearing up, with flattened ears, and one can almost hear the "Hissssss!"

 

Although the muted yellows and browns are usually soothing, in this image they seem a bit foreboding in their role as a stark contrast to the highly agitated kitty. 

 

Bonnard captures quite well the agitation and anxiety of the poor cat.  One hopes that whatever riled it up soon passes.