The Large Cat
Medium
Engraving on ivory paper
Dimensions
Sheet: 14.3 × 18.5 cm (5 11/16 × 7 5/16 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
9372
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Cornelis Visscher’s engraving is one of the softest, most tactile renditions of a cat ever printed. The breathless mouse sneaking by the corner grate seems barely present in contrast, so light and ghostly is its fur. In a culture where cats were domestic staples (as dispatchers of vermin) rather than treasured pets, Visscher created a particularly memorable portrait.
About the Artist
Cornelis Visscher · 1629–1658
Cornelis Visscher (1629–1658) was a Dutch Golden Age engraver, draughtsman, and printmaker born in Haarlem, the brother of fellow artists Jan de Visscher and Lambert Visscher. Little is known of his early life, but he studied under the Haarlem painter and engraver Pieter Claesz Soutman, with whom he closely collaborated from 1649 to 1650, producing numerous portrait engravings for Soutman's print ...