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Washington, United States
loves: you win if you guessed "pets" and "museums". Also books, art history, travel, British punk, Korean kimchi, bindis, martinis, and other things TBD. I will always make it very clear if a post is sponsored in any way. Drop me a line at thepetmuseum AT gmail.com !

Sunday, August 07, 2011

a cat naps in estonia

thanks wikimedia. {{PD:US}} public domain


There was one pinpoint of sun that October day in 1908, and the cat found it. Then Paul Raud (Estonian; 1865-1930) decided to take up his brush and keep that moment for himself. Raud's influences ranged from 17th-century Dutch portaits to German Impressionism, and he spent a fair amount of his career doing traditional portraits for patrons. In this piece, the background's reduced to a gesture in autumn sepia. The serious brushwork is all about the cat: those stripes! Those perfectly articulated ears! No Dutch merchant could ask for more attention in his own portrait.


Curious about Paul Raud? Me too, but I am at a loss since I don't read Estonian. Here is a little info I have found.

3 comments:

The Lee County Clowder said...

Google translations tend to leave keep key words untranslated, too.

It doesn't add much, but Wikipedia has a little info on him, including thumbnails of a couple other paintings. If we're lucky, this will give you a pretty decent painting of an old woman, maybe his mother.

curator said...

Thank you so much for that page! I looked at it - it wasn't too bad to follow.

jen said...

This such a beautiful picture, I could stare at it for hours. I don't why, it is just peaceful:)