Cats in Art: Self-Portrait With Cat (Foujita)

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 the sixth in a series of posts of the cat art of Leonard Foujita.

Image credit Wikiart, here.

Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita, Self-Portrait With a Cat, 1928, media and size unspecified, held in a private collection.

First off, note the subtle difference in title between this image and the one from last week.  Last week's painting was called "Self-Portrait With a Cat" while this one omits the article a (is the term indeed article?--I never paid much attention to the formal parts of speech), going with "Self-Portrait With Cat."

Beyond the word play, in this image we have a much sparser, almost black-and-white image as compared to last week's full color rendering. Actually, while both images date from 1928, this one may have come first; I cannot tell for sure.

But I'd venture to say that the kitty is the same in both images, what I would call a gray tabby.  And while the cat here is serene and snuggling, recall that last week the cat was the very image of a "bad kitty."