Cat Licking Paw

Unknown artist · n.d.

Medium

Lead white gouache (discolored), with graphite, on blue laid paper

Original size

11.1 × 9.3 cm (4 3/8 × 3 11/16 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Neoclassicism

There is something quietly captivating about this intimate study — a cat caught in a private moment, rendered with a stillness that feels both observed and composed. The work belongs to a tradition of animal studies made by workshop draughtsmen and trained painters working in graphite and gouache on tinted paper, a method that allowed artists to build form rapidly using light and dark against a mid-tone ground. The blue laid paper here does exactly that, lending the image a softness that a white ground would not permit. Lead white gouache, applied in careful strokes, models the cat's fur with economy and precision — though centuries of exposure have caused the pigment to discolor, a chemical shift well-documented in works using this particular compound. Lead white, derived from corroded lead sheets, was prized for centuries for its opacity and handling quality before its instability in certain conditions became better understood through modern conservation science. Our hand-painted oil reproduction translates this delicate study into a medium built to last, preserving the tonal relationships and the unhurried intimacy of the original while giving the image the permanence and warmth that oil on canvas naturally provides.