finery for friday: black goes with everything

thanks wikimedia commons (PD:US)

Do you really want to go out?  You got all dressed up, and all those people are expecting you to show up and make chat and nibble politely on whatever without putting a foot wrong or getting anything stuck in your teeth.  How tiresome.  And how beautiful your black cat looks lolling against the fresh lettuce green of your dress.  Who would appreciate you more?
That's the sense of scene I get looking at The Green Dress (1890-99) by American artist John White Alexander.  A socially prominent portrait and decorative painter, Alexander painted elements of the Library of Congress in Washington D.C., the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, to name a few.  This on the other hand is a private and gentle figure study.  Those green folds are bright and crisp, especially playing off the soft dark fur of the cat.  A contented sigh of a canvas.