3: Good Uses for Cat Naps, with Beaux
Cecilia Beaux
Man with the Cat (Henry Sturgis Drinker), 1898
Oil on canvas, w87.8 cm x h121.9 cm (34.625" x 48")
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C., USA
A favorite painting here by Gilded Age artist Cecilia Beaux, a portrait of the artist's brother-in-law (a powerful railroad executive who would go on to be a university president).
The use of the cat here doesn't seem to be about focusing on Drinker's actual relationship with the cat, using the cat as an exotic prop, or about showing off Drinker's status. Instead, the cat's energy (*completely* relaxed) is used in contrast with the sitter's — because while "Drinker's mutton-chop whiskers, linen suit, and casual pose convey immense self-assurance", his "steady, almost wary gaze", combined with some tension in the pose of the hand, show a focused intensity as well. The juxtaposition of the ready hand and alert gaze with the cat's shut eyes and limply pooled body amps up that vibe of intensity...and always nudges me into seeing the cat as a symbol of domesticity, with the suggestion being that Drinker is a man who is perhaps a little out of place at home. That is, happy to take up his place in it, but maybe not quite able to shut off his 'edge' and sink into its comforts all the way.