Cats in Art: Cat's Triumph (Gerard)

From my continuing weekly Sunday series of cats in art.  Having moved on from Stefano Zuffi's marvelous work, The Cat in Art, I am now using some ideas from Caroline Bugler's equally impressive book, The Cat/3500 Years of the Cat in Art.  You really should check out and/or own both of these wonderful works, easily available on Amazon or eBay (and I have no financial interest).

This is the fourth of several posts on the cat art of Marguerite Gerard.

Image credit The Athenaeum, Cat's Triumph, Marguerite Gerard, 1785, held by the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Russian Federation - Moscow, no other information available.


And the kitty close-up:

I guess the work's title--Cat's Triumph--derives from the fact that the primary human is holding the cat, not the dog.

Paintbrush drop, walk off out of the studio.

[Gary note: With my Cats in Arts posts, I encourage you to scope out the art appreciation site Artsy (I have no financial interest in the site, I just like it), where you can explore many aspects of the world of art.  You'll certainly be entertained and enlightened!]

Cats in Art: The Beloved Child (Gerard)

Sorry for no post last week.  Life, etc.
From my continuing weekly Sunday series of cats in art.  Having moved on from Stefano Zuffi's marvelous work, The Cat in Art, I am now using some ideas from Caroline Bugler's equally impressive book, The Cat/3500 Years of the Cat in Art.  You really should check out and/or own both of these wonderful works, easily available on Amazon or eBay (and I have no financial interest).

This is the third of several posts on the cat art of Marguerite Gerard.

Image credit The Athenaeum, The Beloved Child, Marguerite Gerard, oil on canvas, 17" x 22", held by Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 

And the kitty close-up:

Yeah that's just what a cat would like: riding in a sled, getting pulled/pushed by a couple of women, while being held by a toddler, with a big dog a mere couple of feet away. 

What could possibly go wrong?

Ms. Gerard must have rolled in different cat circles than I do.

[Gary note: With my Cats in Arts posts, I encourage you to scope out the art appreciation site Artsy (I have no financial interest in the site, I just like it), where you can explore many aspects of the world of art.  You'll certainly be entertained and enlightened!]

Cats in Art: Motherhood (Gerard)

From my continuing weekly Sunday series of cats in art.  Having moved on from Stefano Zuffi's marvelous work, The Cat in Art, I am now using some ideas from Caroline Bugler's equally impressive book, The Cat/3500 Years of the Cat in Art.  You really should check out and/or own both of these wonderful works, easily available on Amazon or eBay (and I have no financial interest).

This is the second of several posts on the cat art of Marguerite Gerard.

Image credit The Athenaeum, Motherhood, Marguerite Gerard, 1805, medium and size unspecified, held by The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts  (Russian Federation - Moscow).

And the kitty close-up:

To me it appears that there are a pair of kitties here: the obvious white one, plus a dark cat closer to the painter.  The white cat seems at first fascinated with the mom and the toddler, although upon looking more, the eyes seem more directed towards the other cat or the artist rather than the mother/child combo.   

So....we have a cat (or a pair of kitties) not all that interested in Motherhood.  Figures.

FYI, there's another Gerard painting called Motherhood, sans chat.  And one also called Motherhood, avec chat, that I only can seem to located on Pinterest.

[Gary note: With my Cats in Arts posts, I encourage you to scope out the art appreciation site Artsy (I have no financial interest in the site, I just like it), where you can explore many aspects of the world of art.  You'll certainly be entertained and enlightened!]

Cats in Art: Lady With a Cat (Gerard)

From my continuing weekly Sunday series of cats in art.  Having moved on from Stefano Zuffi's marvelous work, The Cat in Art, I am now using some ideas from Caroline Bugler's equally impressive book, The Cat/3500 Years of the Cat in Art.  You really should check out and/or own both of these wonderful works, easily available on Amazon or eBay (and I have no financial interest).

Last week's post concluded my study of Jean-Honore Fragonard, and with this post we're transitioning to the art of one of his students and sister-in-law.  This will be the first of several posts on the cat art of Marguerite Gerard.

I previously did a Gerard series back in the spring of 2017, but these are additional images  that complement those previously featured.

Image credit The Athenaeum, Lady With a Cat, Marguerite Gerard. Circa 1804, oil on canvas, 13" x 10", holder unspecified.


And the kitty close-up:

The large white cat with the orange marking looks, shall we say, a tad annoyed.  Not annoyed enough to bite or scratch--yet--but sufficiently peeved to glare at the artist as though to say: "What are you looking at?"

The woman seems composed and almost aloof, as though the cat's mood is nothing particularly noteworthy or alarming ("Oh, the cat's acting pissy again").

And the fact remains that the cat is right there on what looks to be the arm of a chair.  He/she could be anywhere but close to sit there, so the glare is really just a ploy.  The cat is actually devoted to human contact.

At least that's been my experience over some decades of cat interaction.

[Gary note: With my Cats in Arts posts, I encourage you to scope out the art appreciation site Artsy (I have no financial interest in the site, I just like it), where you can explore many aspects of the world of art.  You'll certainly be entertained and enlightened!]