off the cuff

Drawing, Design for Embroidery, Gentleman's Waistcoat Pocket, ca. 1785;
Designed by Fabrique de Saint Ruf ; France; 18.4 × 31.3 cm (7 1/4 × 12 5/16 in.);
Gift of Eleanor and Sarah Hewitt; 1920-36-324 http://cprhw.tt/o/2BkT6/

France, 1785:  this could have been hand-embroidered on your waistcoat, and you could have enjoyed it for a season or two before you ordered one or two or six new fashion-forward garments.  Meanwhile, the political dynamic in France was shifting toward the Terror; in six years Louis XVI would be beheaded.  So much for your leisurely aristocratic days at the hunt, and for lushly decorated clothes, probably left behind when you bailed to England.

draw a hedgehog in french

By patricia m from france (les animaux 55) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

From a French book of drawing instructions titled "Les Animaux tels qu'ils sont" (Animals As They Are):  here is how you draw Le Herisson, The Hedgehog.  Bonus! Le Porc-Epic (porcupine!) at the bottom!
Would you like to see the whole book?  It has instructions for a very large variety of animals, and is lovely in its own right. Here you are.

an entertaining little fellow

www.nationalgallery.org.uk Sir Hugh Lane Bequest, 1917

You'd never guess that the person who painted this relaxed scene also painted at the front lines of the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1).  The artist was John Lewis Brown, born in France of Scottish parents.  Brown was known for his sporting and military scenes, as well as his paintings of dogs and horses.  (You see he's got one of both of those here.)  I think that what we're looking at is a soldier playing with his dog for a peaceful moment, lending his hat for extra effect.  The look on the man's face is tender, tired, winsome, as if he were grateful for this small gentle time.  The dog just wants to please, because face it, they're love incarnate.  It's true that we've bred them to be this; what a pity we can't do that for ourselves in general.

the jumping dogs of the folies bergere, 1890

http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b90041108  (National Library of France; PD)

"The Jumping Dogs, presented by Fred Leslie."  I can't find anything about this act, but I did find a Fred Leslie, an English actor and comedian active at this time.  Wonder if it was the same man?  And did you know you can still go to the Folies Bergere?

a 14th century cat door

art.thewalters.org CC0 license

The 14th-century French cat that used this kitty door must have been a scrawny, hardworking petit chat indeed.  This fine example of feline ingress (and egress, and ingress - do cats go in and out as much when they are calling the shots?) is found at this page of the the Walters Art Museum.  There you'll find that while not many examples of cat doors have survived from the Middle Ages, no less a source than Geoffrey Chaucer mentions one in "The Miller's Tale."  There's also one at Manchester, England's Chetham Library, in a door dating from 1421.

marengo rides again

Antoine-Jean Gros [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

He seems such a gentle little grey creature to carry so much history.  This is Marengo, Napoleon's warhorse, captured by the British on the battlefield of Waterloo.  He outlived Napoleon by ten years, and seems to have been very well treated by his captors (is that how to think of it still?) in that time.  Upon his passing his skeleton was placed in the National Army Museum till a recent stay at the Natural History Museum.  You might call it a bit of a spa retreat:  Marengo's bones were in need of cleaning, his stance needing perking up, and his mounting hardware needed updating.
If you'd like to see a bit of how that was done, have a look at this page over at the Natural History Museum in London.  The National Army Museum also has a detailed account of Marengo's conservation adventure here, but just a note - there is a large closeup of his skull at the top of the page, if you need to steel yourself for that.  I found his skull interesting in its delicacy, and could see he must indeed have been a handsome fellow.

cat of liberty

http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb40295786c  (PD) c. 1777-1824

That's what the caption to this intense feline portrait says: "Chat de la liberte," adding "D'apres nature" (from life).  Why does this cat embody liberty?  It seems only Jean-Jacques Lequeu, its illustrator, knew.  Lequeu was an architect and draughtsman in the days leading up to the French Revolution, specializing in visionary, impractical, even eccentric building plans.  He also created a number of more domestic drawings, such as the one above (and a number of pornographic ones).
Lequeu, I think, was one of those people who lives keenly for a particular time and place, and never quite recalibrates afterward.  Post-Revolution, he became a civil servant instead of an architect.

toulouse-lautrec: la gousse

Dallas Museum of Art, The Wendy and Emery Reves Collection

This very small oil on panel measures no more than 5.25 x 9 inches, yet Henri De Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) has given this wiry-haired dog great physicality and presence. It's easy to forget that he could produce outdoorsy, realistically observed pieces such as this, and it's always enjoyable to rediscover them.

rosa bonheur paints a formal portrait

thanks the-athenaeum.org (PD)

This reminds me of nothing so much as Velaquez's Portrait of Juan de Pareja.  Same immediate impact, same dignity.  A couple of centuries later in 1879, here's Rosa Bonheur presenting us with her friend Barbouyo.  He may have been hers, or not.  I have been paging through a book published in 1910 of Bonheur's Reminiscences in hopes of finding reference to this breed, or even this particular dog.  I think he looks like a German wirehaired pointer. No luck on the particular identification, but I have gathered that she was very fond of dogs and animals in general - no surprise when you recall Bonheur is the painter of the majestic The Horse Fair (which you'll find in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art).

a beaded field

The Elizabeth Day McCormick Collection www.mfa.org

Crafted in France around 1715, this pocketbook is known by the eagle and sun on its obverse side: "Device of Louis XIV." Louis XIV was the Sun King, but I see just as much radiance in the reverse side I've shown here.  This lush natural scene is all done in strung-together glass beads.  Do you see the dog at hunt over on the left?  Here's an enhance, with bonus squirrel:

madame de pompadour's dog

Acquired by Henry Walters, 1895 (CC) thewalters.org

The artist: Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, circa 1755.  If that name sounds familiar to Museum friends with a taste for French history, that's because you know Jeanne best as the Marquise de Pompadour (1721-1764).  This engraving of her dog - possibly Bébé - was the latest stage in an art collective.  As explained here at the Walters' source page, the pup's portrait was first engraved upon a gem by Jacques Guay.  Then another artist, possibly Francois Boucher, drew the gem, and last but not least Madame de Pompadour created an engraving based on the drawing.  This isn't meant to take away from the quality of the engraving at all.  The delicacy and sprightliness of this creature still shine through its third stage of portrayal; Madame de Pompadour was a woman of several gifts, so this doesn't surprise me.

I found a transcript of an NPR review of the Walters' exhibition in which "Bebe" was included.  Would you like to read it?  Here you go. 

BONUS!  Are you interested in the royal world of Versailles in general?  Have I found the blog for you.  This is Versailles.

a cheerful "story of a lost dog," 1933

thanks fr.wikisource.org (PD)

This colorful cover, and the cheerful tale within, is by the pioneering cartoonist and animator Benjamin Rabier.  You see his work very, very frequently, though you don't realize it:  he's the best-known illustrator of the Laughing Cow logo.

kiss and make up, 1797

thanks http://gallica.bnf.fr (PD)

History lesson, everybody!  What European peace treaty does this odd picture represent?  No, I didn't know either...

The caption reads, "Le Traité de paix avec Rome : baisez ça papa et faite pate de velours." Translated as best I can: The peace treaty with Rome, kissing the Pope and keeping a good face on it.  

There's a possibility the actual meaning might be a lot cruder, considering this is a satire of the Treaty of Tolentino of February 1797 in which Napoleon imposed terms of surrender on the Papal States.  So the cat in the hat there is the Pope, accepting a branch of peace that isn't going to end well for him and he knows it.  The Pope in question, Pius VI, was shuttled off to exile, and died a year later in France.

a cat can smooch for a king

In which Louis XIV of France bestows upon a beautiful girl a treat/honor beyond compare (that is, if you're Louis XIV). . .

Louis XIV petted himself more than any living creature; yet he had some sympathy to spare for his numerous dogs; he even had their portraits painted, at a considerable cost; and he also, presumably, had a favorite cat—if the story in Swift’s Memoirs is one to be relied upon. This story is to the effect that during the reign of Queen Anne, a Miss Nelly Bennet, a young lady who took prestige as a great beauty, visited the French court.
She traveled in the care of witty Dr. Arbuthnot, who in a letter to the Dean, describes the outbursts of admiration that greeted his fair charge.  “She had great honours done her,” he remarks, then adds,“and the hussar himself was ordered to bring her the king’s cat to kiss."
When this important bit of news came to be reported in England, a wit, now unknown, wrote a poem on the event, describing how

When as Nelly came to France

(Invited by her cousins),

Across the Tuileries each glance

Killed Frenchmen by whole dozens.

The king, as he at dinner sat,

Did beckon to his hussar,

And bid him bring his tabby-cat

For charming Nell to buss her."

 

-- Lewis, E. (1892). Famous pets of famous people. Boston: D. Lothrop Company. 109-10.

deux chats

Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Estampes et photographie, FOL-EF-449 (PD)

Here's the French engraver Prosper-Alphonse Isaac (1858-1924) with an elegant pair of creatures.   After years mastering and producing dry point, aquatint and other Western methods, Isaac turned to Japanese wood-engraving technique.  These cats are from that period, dating roughly 1908-1912.  Japanese woodprints used waterbased inks, which had fresh, vivid ranges of color; you can see that here even in the simple lines.
For the fun of it, I found this 1898 text on Japanese wood engravings. It's full of illustrations, even if you don't want to slog through the text.  Have a flip through it.

rabbits run

courtesy of the Getty's Open Image Program

Brittany, France, mid 1400's: a Livre de la Chasse (Book of the Chase) is created by an unknown master of illumination.  Ah, bunnies are known for providing sport, in their small way, and so we get this lively illustration of a warren of rabbits.  Let's look closer.

They hop here and there, they find their burrows, and if the lower right hand corner is any indication, they also find romance.

Rabbits (Getty Museum)

Rabbits; Unknown; Brittany, France; about 1430 - 1440; Tempera colors, gold paint, silver paint, and gold leaf on parchment

http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/2137/unknown-ma . . .

pensive pair, 1866

thanks wikiart.org. (PD)

Camille Doncieux is shown here modeling for Claude Monet in 1866, a year when she well might have been lost in thought: in August of the next year she would give birth to Monet's son Jean, but they would not marry till 1870.  I'm afraid that her life even in overview makes for melancholy reading.  I hope this was her own dog cuddling close to her to give comfort and support - something dogs do so well when people often do not.

cats: getting in your stuff since...ever

discarding images, via pinterest

Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, MS 404, fol. 156v:  it's difficult to get any hand-spinning done when you're trying to get the cat away from a bowl of delicious whatever.

-- Fun fact: According to the breakdown of the manuscript at the Beinecke, fol.156v is one of a set of pages containing "Excerpts from Proverbs 11.1-15.4."  

raminou parks it

thanks wikiart.org (PD)

1920, Paris: Suzanne Valadon decides to paint some luscious folds and rich colors, but how to set them off perfectly?  No worries.  As any cat knows, what better foil for fine textiles than fur?  You must agree with me that her trusty frequent model, Raminou the ginger cat, appears most assured that a cat's place is dead center.  Valadon (1865-1938) is generally associated with the French Post-Impressionsts, such as Toulouse-Lautrec; this movement in a nutshell rolled together what the artist wanted to see with what he or she felt about it.  So not so much about verisimilitude; here I believe it's more about the sheer fun of tackling these intricate drapings and jewelled colors, and another great excuse to take - make - a picture of the cat.

hound and varlet, 13th c

the metropolitan museum of art  - Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917

Actually the record at the Met for this object dating from c. 1240 reads "Medallion with Varlet with Horn and Hound."  I changed it to refer to my biased view.  This small decoration is gilt and enamel cloisonné on copper, 3 9/16" diameter, made in Limoges.  (You probably know that name for something else way more breakable made way later.)