The Eagle, the Cat, and the Sow
1950
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
woodcut
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1954.12.43
Art Historical Context
Behold *The Eagle, the Cat and the Sow*, a captivating 1950 woodcut by Antonio Frasconi, housed in the National Gallery of Art's esteemed Rosenwald Collection. This draws from Aesop's timeless fables, depicting the cunning interplay of animals—an eagle nesting high, a watchful cat, and a sow burrowing below—in a tale of mistrust and rivalry. Frasconi, a Uruguayan-born artist who championed printmaking in mid-20th-century America, infuses the scene with bold, expressive lines that evoke moral lessons through whimsical yet pointed animal characters. Crafted as a color woodcut, the work highligh...
About the Artist
Antonio Frasconi · 1919–2013
Antonio Frasconi (1919–2013) was a Uruguayan-American artist renowned for his masterful woodcuts, which blended bold graphic power with poignant social commentary. Born on April 28, 1919, aboard a ship between Argentina and Uruguay to Italian immigrant parents, he was raised in poverty in Montevideo, Uruguay, where his mother worked as a seamstress and restaurant manager to support him and his two...