manet cat

I found out today that the Yale University Art Gallery, one of my favorite art museums, is having a bit of work done. When it reopens, if you ever have the pleasure of visiting New Haven, please consider going to this fascinating collection. Many of its pieces are traveling to Seattle Art Museum for a fresh venue while their home is spiffied.

I wonder if Edouard Manet's Young Woman Reclining in Spanish Costume will be there. Created in 1862-63, the painting - so the info says - shows the same model that featured in his celebrated Olympia. But what drew my eye was the fiercely lively gray and black kitten in the lower right, a whirl of brushstrokes against the bright piece of fruit it's batting about. Comapre that to the smoother, slightly more sedate modeling that creates the figure of the young woman.