Cats in Art: The Music Lesson (Fragonard)

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 will be the first of 5 posts on the cat art of Jean Honore Fragonard.

Image credit Louvre Museum, The Music Lesson, Jean Honore Fragonard, 1770, oil on canvas, 43" x 48", held by the Louvre Museum, Paris, France.

And the kitty close-up:

Frederix Vitoux and Elisabeth Foucart-Walter, in their book Cats in the Louvre, provide this analysis:

Fragonard liked featuring animals in his compositions....The cat in this Music Lesson, comfortably ensconced on a chair next to a pandora, is not, however, the most successful feline on Fargonard's oeuvre, at least from a morphological point of view.  Still, such loose treatment gives him an amusing look and the eye is fatefully attracted to him.

My take is just as discussed above: this is a sorry-looking cat...but cute.  The cat is where one's eye is first drawn, and only after you scope out the kitty do you notice the other pair of characters...whose minds are seemingly not on their music.

[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!]