made in heaven

Impressionism was dominated by compositions that showed every day scenes of French life in the 19th Century pet portraits however, seemed to not figure in the artists range of subjects, in all probability being considered undeserving of the painters’ attention.

In spite of the painters hesitance in spending time on pet art, one artist did move (of a sort) into this domain.

Manet, the grand statesman of French Impressionists and creator of such ground breaking paintings such as “Olympia” and “Le Dejeuner sur l’herbe”, made many sketches and water colours of his family cat Zizi. Zizi also featured in a portrait he did of Suzanne Leenhoff, the woman he married in 1863. This portrait, called “Woman with Cat”, was probably painted after Manets’ return from Rueil near Paris between 1880 and 1802, from where he had spent the summer with his wife. Nevertheless, many see it as incomplete and that he would have been working on it when he died in 1883. Anyway, it shows the artists’ proficiency with the use of unreserved strokes of strong colour, typical of his sketch technique.

Another notable around this time that made studies of animals was Degas, although he never considered himself part of the impressionism movement, preferring to call himself “the classical painter of modern life”. Degas made a point of studying the horse and jockeys at the races, fascinated with the portrayal of perpetual motion amongst the thoroughbreds preparing to race. Degas was able to capture the visually satisfying moment within the flow of movement, whether they were the steps and leaps of the ballet dancers or that of the horses on the turf.

This great ability to be able to correctly ’see’ the fleeting moment in an ever-changing scene, gave his paintings a reality that contemporaries couldn’t. Consider Gericaults’ engraving of an English racehorse which has all four legs out backwards and forwards, a manner believed to be true until Degas showed us differently!

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