Cats in Art: Lady With a 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).

Last week's post concluded my study of Jean-Honore Fragonard, and with this post we're transitioning to the art of one of his students and sister-in-law.  This will be the first of several posts on the cat art of Marguerite Gerard.

I previously did a Gerard series back in the spring of 2017, but these are additional images  that complement those previously featured.

Image credit The Athenaeum, Lady With a Cat, Marguerite Gerard. Circa 1804, oil on canvas, 13" x 10", holder unspecified.


And the kitty close-up:

The large white cat with the orange marking looks, shall we say, a tad annoyed.  Not annoyed enough to bite or scratch--yet--but sufficiently peeved to glare at the artist as though to say: "What are you looking at?"

The woman seems composed and almost aloof, as though the cat's mood is nothing particularly noteworthy or alarming ("Oh, the cat's acting pissy again").

And the fact remains that the cat is right there on what looks to be the arm of a chair.  He/she could be anywhere but close to sit there, so the glare is really just a ploy.  The cat is actually devoted to human contact.

At least that's been my experience over some decades of cat interaction.

[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!]