“Six Studies of a Cat”
This sketch piece is by the English portrait artist, Thomas Gainsborough, and is titled “Six Studies of a Cat”. This black and white chalk on brown paper sketch was made sometime between 1763 and 1769.
Gainsborough was a renowned English portrait artist and probably the most famous in his day during the late eighteenth century. As such, he often had to paint portraits of people with their beloved pets, cats and dogs usually, but sometimes also with their horses. Cats were placed prominently in several of his works including “The Painter’s Daughters, Margaret and Mary, Holding a Cat”, “Miss Brummell”, and “A Boy with a Cat – Morning”.
This sketch shows the same cat in multiple positions, sleeping and cleaning itself. Unlike most of his sketches, this one has been signed in the lower right-hand corner, leading some to believe that it was a created as a gift.
“Six Studies of a Cat” is currently on display at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
For more on Thomas Gainsborough, please visit his short biography here.
You can find more artists to learn about here.
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Thank you so much for catching that! It’s fixed now.