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!]