A Boy with a Cat—Morning
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
59 1/4 x 47 1/2 in. (150.5 x 120.7 cm)
Classification
Paintings
Department
European Paintings
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Marquand Collection, Gift of Henry G. Marquand, 1889
Accession Number
89.15.8
Tags
Art Historical Context
Thomas Gainsborough's *A Boy with a CatMorning* (1787) captures a tender moment of childhood innocence in oil on canvas, measuring an impressive 59¼ x 47½ inches. Painted late in the artist's career, this work exemplifies Gainsborough's mastery as one of Britain's leading 18th-century portrait, blending Rococo elegance with emerging Romantic naturalism. The boy, dressed in a flowing white gown, cradles a cat against a softly lit background evoking early morning light, highlighting Gainsborough's fascination with everyday subjects elevated to poetic heights. Gainsborough's signature loose, flu...
About the Artist
Thomas Gainsborough · 1727–1788
Thomas Gainsborough was born on 14 May 1727 in Sudbury, Suffolk, the youngest of nine children to wool dealer John Gainsborough and his wife Mary. Demonstrating prodigious talent from childhood, he sketched landscapes in the local woods and fields, fostering his lifelong passion for the genre. At age thirteen, he moved to London, where he trained under the French engraver and illustrator Hubert-Fr...