Cats in Art: Portrait of Two Children With a Cat and a Canary

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).

Two weeks ago I posted on Francois-Hubert Drouais where I delved into a pair of paintings that are similar but not identical.  Here's another painting attributed to Drouais that I find fascinating:

Image credit art auction site Artnet, Portrait of Two Children With a Cat and a Canary, middle 1700s, attributed to Francois-Hubert Drouais, oil on canvas, 30" x 41", holder unspecified.

And the kitty-kid-canary close-up:

Couple reactions to this painting:

--Do you think--as I do--that the human eyes and the cat eyes are remarkably similar?  Rather tall, tending toward round, and not so much oblong?  

--Cat, canary, young children....what could possibly go wrong?

--Despite the inherent danger of the situation, the mood of the painting (yes, paintings do have moods!) is quite benign and placid.  Sure, the kitty is eyeing up the canary but it seems more interested in play than in prey.

--If you click over to the Artnet site (my image credit above) you will note that there have been over 300 art auctions of the paintings of Francois-Hubert Drouais (or his emulators). Wow.  There is certainly a HUGE art auction market of which ordinary people have little knowledge.  And I am not being snide when I say I get it: rich people have to have someplace to park their money.  You buy upscale things, possessions, connotations of wealth.

[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!]