Cats in Art: Olympia (Manet)

Sorry about being dark last week, was on vacation and my scheduled post somehow failed to run (I'm pretty sure it was my operator error).

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).

Here's an image from Edouard Manet that I used here at Mister Tristan (the blog, not the 10 year old human being) about a year ago (you may want to click over to see my comments):

In my previous blog post I commented how the black kitty down at the foot of the bed is pretty much invisible, being black-on-black.  Also how I ran that post prior to visiting the Orsay Museum in Paris...and now I have stood in front of this magnificent painting and been awed by it.  Wow!


In browsing the (so-called) complete works of Manet, I just ran across this preliminary sketch that perhaps was used as a study prior to painting the image:

Image credit here, Olympia, Edouard Manet, no other information available.


And the kitty close-up:

Too bad Manet didn't emphasize the black cat more in the final painting.  Or maybe he did, and the years have not been kind to the painting.  Many images over the years fade, or get coated with grime and haze such that details are lost.  Or--and this is perhaps heretical--Manet screwed up his background and simply made it too dark in the final oil painting.

Here's the photo I took of the cat when I was at the Orsay.  The poor kitty deserves better, getting kinda lost in the background:

[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!]