light on cat fur

thanks the-athenaeum.org. PD

Only a simple image of a cat watching her robust kittens address a saucer of milk, but the sheer beauty of the light and the way the mom cat glows makes this my pick for today.  This is Cat and Kittens by the Irish impressionist Walter Osborne (1859-1903).  This was done in 1889, when Osborne was 30 and already responsible for the lion's share of supporting his parents and niece.  A winner of the Taylor Prize in 1881 and 1882, it seems portrait commissions were his bread and butter.  Yet he also spent a great deal of time painting outdoors and producing many peaceful genre scenes like this.  He died young, though his portrait at Wikipedia makes him seem venerable and weary. I suspect he worked himself to death, and what a pity.