Cats in Art: The Living Room (Kirchner)

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.

 

Image credit Artflakes, here, The Living Room,  Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, 1920, oil on canvas, 35" x 59", held by Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany.

 

You just gotta love a painting that contains only a cat as the sole focus.  Yet for me the painting is a bit jarring: the cat's black fur contrasts starkly with the vivid colors of the sofa.  Moreover, the cat is horizontal while the vertical striping of the background dominates the rest of the image, lending another discordant note.

 

Zuffi comments:

 

Even in this context, however, the black cat maintains its age-old indifference, calmly purring on the divan, impassive and reassuring.