Concerning Cat Artists 



ings in which the cat appears more or less unsuccess- 

 fully. Breughel and Teniers made their grotesque 

 " Cat Concerts " famous, but one can scarcely see 

 why, since the drawing is poor and there is no real 

 insight into cat character evident. The sleeping 

 cat, in Breughel's " Paradise Lost " in the Louvre, is 

 better, being well drawn, but so small as to leave no 

 chance for expression. Lebrun's " Sleep of the 

 Infant Jesus," in the Louvre, has a slumbering cat 

 under the stove, and in Barocci's " La Madonna del 

 Gatto " the cat is the centre of interest. Holman 

 Hunt's " The Awakening Conscience " and Mu- 

 rillo's Holy Family "del Pajarito" give the cat as a 

 type of cruelty, but have failed egregiously in accu- 

 racy of form or expression. Paul Veronese's cat in 

 " The Marriage at Cana " is fearfully and wonder- 

 fully made, and even Rembrandt failed when he tried 

 to introduce a cat into his pictures. 



Rosa Bonheur has been wise enough not to 

 attempt cat pictures, knowing that special study, for 

 which she had not the time or the inclination, is neces- 

 sary to fit an artist to excel with the feline character. 

 Landseer, too, after trying twice, once in 1819 with 

 "The Cat Disturbed" and once in 1824 with "The 

 Cat's Paw," gave up all attempts at dealing with 

 Grimalkin. Indeed, most artists who have attempted 

 it, have found that to be a wholly successful cat artist 

 such whole-hearted devotion to the subject as Madame 

 Ronner's is the invariable price of distinction. 



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