sleepy pisica

the romanian academy library
Grigorescu, Nicolae, [Studii de pisică]. [S.l.], [s.a.]. - (PD)

"Pisica" - Romanian for "cat."  More like very tiny kitten, if you ask me, but then I'm not Nicolae Grigorescu (1838-1907).  He studied in France during the prime years of the Barbizon school, which encouraged a soft, golden, Romantic sort of Realism.  There's no color here other than graphite grays against the paper, but the soft realism is clearly there.  Grigorescu eventually returned from France to become one of the powers in modern Romanian painting.  You might not be able to tell that from this simple drawing, but you can tell how little and unguarded this creature is, and that was done with hardly any detail - a master's trick.