Cats in Art: The Swaddled 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).

This is 4th of several posts on the art of Marguerite Gerard.

Image credit Musee de Grasse, The Swaddled Cat, Marguerite Gerard, 1778, etching, held by Musee de Grasse, size unspecified.

Here's what the museum web site tells us about this etching: 

Around 1775, Marguerite Gérard, who was barely able to read and write, moved into the house of her sister, Marie-Anne Gérard, who had been married to Jean-Honoré Fragonard for six years. She became Fragonard's pupil and learned to paint, draw and engrave. Fragonard undoubtedly corrected the drawings of his young pupil and introduced her to etching, which enabled her to proudly sign this first print in 1778: The Swaddled Cat.

In 1780, she began to collaborate with the master, as shown by the engravings which include the statement "painted by Fragonard and Miss Gérard", and the signing of several prints.

First off, young Marguerite did this etching when she was a 17 year old.  Not too shabby an effort!  And the rendering of the kitty--that facial expression of total relaxation and bliss is captured so well.  That cat is in kitty heaven, at least for the moment.  It  reminds me of the stories my mother-in-law tells me about growing up on the farm in the 1930s, where she would dress up the barn cats and push them around in a stroller.

[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 Angora 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).

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

   

Image credit Wallraf-Richartz Museum & Foundation Corboud, The Angora Cat, Marguerite Gerard, 1783, oil on canvas, 26" x 22", held by Wallraf-Richartz Museum & Foundation Corboud.

And the kitty close-up:

Bugler tells us:

 The Angora Cat, painted in collaboration with Jean-Honore Fragonard, shows a cat baffled by its reflection in a convex mirror.

And the museum website tells us:

In the centre of the painting is a curious scene: evidently a black cloth has just been taken off the silver globe. An Angora cat has discovered her reflection and may have decided it is a rival. The globe also reflects what is going on behind us, so to speak: a woman is sitting at an easel in a small room with two other people.

While this is a pretty cool painting, I personally think the whole concept of cats and mirrors is overblown.  None of our kitties ever seemed to perceive the cat in the mirror, much less react to the "intruder."  That said, the concept of this painting is rather cool, where the reflective globe shows the viewer what else is going on in the room.

[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: Prelude to a Concert (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 second of several posts on the art of Marguerite Gerard.

Image credit National Museum of Women in the Arts, Prelude to a Concert, Marguerite Gerard, ca 1810, oil on canvas, 22" x 18", held by National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC.

And the kitty close-up.  Look very closely at this dark image to see the dark calico kitty on the table beside the sheet music:

Tool bad that Gerard did not throw a little of the light that illuminates the lady's bosom over onto the cat!  And as for the cat, making out her features is next to impossible, but I can detect that the cat's ears are pricked up and the eyes seem focused and intent, likely on the dog over there at the bottom left.

The National Museum of Women in the Arts website tells us about this painting:

Here, the female singer is clad in a sumptuous white satin gown, attire often seen on Gérard’s female subjects. She pauses to gaze up at her male accompanist, perhaps in response to a romantic overture. The tension of an erotic narrative is further supported by the guitar, often compared to the female body; the dog, a traditional emblem of fidelity; and the cat, a symbol of sexual promiscuity.

Really?  Cats are a symbol of sexual promiscuity?  That's news to me, but maybe my affection for cats explains why I am such a deviate.

[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 Cat's Lunch (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 first of several posts on the art of Marguerite Gerard.

Image credit Jean-Honoré Fragonard Villa-Museum, The Cat's Lunch (or Young Girl Giving Milk to Her Cat), Marguerite Gerard, ca 1800, oil on canvas, 24" x 19", held by Jean-Honoré Fragonard Villa-Museum, France.

And the kitty close-up:

Bugler tells us:

The charming owner of this splendid tortoiseshell and white cat is actually kneeling in front of her enthroned pet to offer up a dish of milk, under the envious eye of the dog.  The canine and feline pairing occurs in another of Gerard's paintings, Prelude to a Concert, while The Angora Cat, painted in collaboration with Jean-Honore Fragonard, shows a cat baffled by its reflection in a convex mirror.  [Gary note: these two paintings will be featured over the next couple weeks as we dig deeper into the cat art of Marguerite Gerard]

Here are my comments.  First, this cat is a BEAST, sized more like a lynx or a bobcat.  Its head is about the same size as that of the girl.  Plus, the cat is really annoyed, despite the milk: just take a look at the flattened ears.  Probably because of the overeager dog sitting beside the girl, hoping for a treat or a cat fight.

That said, Gerard somehow manages to have the painting project almost an air of tranquility or serenity, even with the obvious canine-feline potential for disaster.  The lighting, the colors, the girl, and the overall mood of the painting manage to dissuade the viewer from feeling anxious about the subject matter.

[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: Rest in Peace, Tizzy

Departing from my normal script here to bide farewell to our Tizzy, who died at age 12 over the winter.  I guess she just ran out of lives, not because she lived hard and fast, but according to her personality, she just kinda moseyed off into the hereafter (and cancer propelled her along).

Couple of years ago I posted the post below.  The original link is here.

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Sunday, November 2, 2014

Cats in Art: My Very Own Renaissance Kitty

UPDATED--See bottom of post!

I was sitting on the recliner the other day.  Tizzy, who had been on my chest getting stroked and petted, either got too warm or had had enough cat love, and went to lay at the bottom of the recliner.  She likes the spot where the footrest comes up: it makes a slightly V-shaped "bed" to lay in.

As the sun shone on Tizzy, she looked exactly to me as though she were a Renaissance kitty.  I had my camera within reach and snapped this image:

[image credit Gary]

Why do I refer to her as a Renaissance kitty?  See any parallels with this image?

[image credit Amazon]

This is the cover of the Zuffi book that has served as inspiration for my Cats in Art series of posts that I've been running on Sundays here for a couple of years now.  The book's dust cover is a detail from the Frederico Barocchi painting The Annunciation (1584, oil on wood transferred onto canvas, approx 97" x 67", held in the Vatican Art Gallery collection  Santa Maria Degli Angeli, Assisi, Italy).

Those dimensions above are for the entire painting, which is BIG--about 8 feet high and nearly 6 feet wide.  The kitty is snuggled in the lower left corner and by my reckoning covers a space about the size of an ordinary sheet of paper.  

Just for kicks here's the entire image of The Annunciation, with the marvelous kitty way down there in the lower left corner:

[image credit here]

So...if I ever make it to the Vatican, the Pope will just have to wait until I've scoped out this magnificent painting.

UPDATE: I was wrong about the museum: the painting is actually held at Santa Maria Degli Angeli, Assisi, Italy.  How do I know this?  The bride and I were actually just in Italy--and at the Vatican--a couple of weeks ago, and the painting was nowhere to be found.  My apologies for the error; I had written this post some months back, scheduled it for 2 Nov, and did not review it before it posted.  Oops!