January 8, 1925

George Bellows (1882 to January 8, 1925) can be considered a part of the Ashcan School, so called because of their portrayal of an gritty, urban realism. At the time of his early death, of a ruptured appendix, Bellows was considered a major artist. Our example of his portrayal of a cat though, shows a cosseted one. It appears in a preparatory sketch, on the right below.





Under this artifact, currently held by the Museum of Modern Art, the captioning reads:

'George Bellows. Preliminaries. 1916. Lithograph, composition: 15 13/16 x 19 5/8″ (40.2 x 49.8 cm); sheet: 18 1/2 x 22 5/8″ (47 x 57.4 cm). Gift of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller.'

The accompanying text links the sketch to current themes:

'....Art Proves that Cats Are the Best Thing Ever
....
'Scientists have recently offered up a theory that the parasitic disease toxoplasmosis, which is carried by cats, affects human brain chemistry in creepy ways, with some even theorizing that it eventually makes us the cats’ servants. At the Eyeo 2013 conference, Kevin Slavin posited that this is the reason for the prevalence of cat videos and memes on the Internet. I’m not sure about that, but as a cat owner I know that they are our betters, and that the planet should belong to them…and my head hurts.

'I’ve also realized that some of the greatest parts of modern art are the unexpected and smaller moments. Also, some of these involve cats. In fact, if you start looking closely you’ll see them all around.

'In MoMA’s American Modern: Hopper to O’Keeffe exhibition you’ll see some paintings, prints, and other works capturing the intense buzz of modern American life. Within the chaos of George Bellows’s Preliminaries, "for example, you’ll see men in tuxedos and the bright lights of a boxing match. And a lady wearing a cat on her chest. If modernity has taught us anything, it’s that cats should rule the world and we should carry them as they see fit."'