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Judith Leyster, 'A Boy and a Girl with a Cat and an Eel', about 1635
About the work
Overview
'He who plays with cats gets scratched’ – in other words, he who looks for trouble will get it. This is an old Dutch motto that appears to be a possible source for Judith Leyster’s cheerful picture, and it’s been suggested that the painting was intended as both delightful entertainment and a warning.
In other Dutch morality pictures of the time, a little girl would have been expected to show a good example; this one has an older brother to lead her astray. She has a wicked twinkle in her eye and the fingers of her hand curl round the cat’s tail, ready to give it a tug. Leyster has captured the boy’s half-guilty, half-unashamed expression as he teases the cat – he seems to be testing just how far he can go.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- A Boy and a Girl with a Cat and an Eel
- Artist
- Judith Leyster
- Artist dates
- 1609 - 1660
- Date made
- about 1635
- Medium and support
- oil on wood
- Dimensions
- 59.4 × 48.8 cm
- Inscription summary
- Signed
- Acquisition credit
- Bequeathed by C.F. Leach, 1943
- Inventory number
- NG5417
- Location
- Room 23
- Collection
- Main Collection
- Frame
- 17th-century Dutch Frame
Provenance
In the [John Hotchkis] sale, London, 8 July 1910 (lot 30), bought by Rutley (Reynolds Gallery, London), 720 gns; Mrs Holbrooke sale, London, 17 February 1939 (lot 98), bought by Vicars (920 gns). C. F. Leach Bequest, 1943.
Additional information
This painting is included in a list of works with incomplete provenance from 1933–1945; for more information see Whereabouts of paintings 1933–1945.
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Neil MacLaren, revised and expanded by Christopher Brown, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School: 1600–1900’, London 1991; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Exhibition history
-
2017The Art of Laughter - Humour in the Golden AgeFrans Hals Museum11 November 2017 - 18 March 2018
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2019Painting Childhood: From Holbein to FreudCompton Verney16 March 2019 - 16 June 2019
Bibliography
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1824W. Buchanan, Memoirs of Painting: With a Chronological History of the Importation of Pictures by the Great Masters into England Since the French Revolution, London 1824
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1960Maclaren, Neil, National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School, 2 vols, London 1960
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1979J. Bruyn, 'Een onderzoek naar 17de-eeuwse schilderijformaten, voornamelijk in Noord-Nederland', Oud Holland, XCIII, 1979, pp. 96-115
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1982J. Fletcher et al., The Women's Art Show 1550-1970 (exh. cat. Nottingham Castle Museum, 1982), Nottingham 1982
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1983J. Mills and R. White, 'Pictures Cleaned and Restored in the Conservation Department of the National Gallery, January 1982 – December 1982', National Gallery Technical Bulletin, VII, 1983
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1991Maclaren, Neil, revised by Christopher Brown, National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School, 1600-1900, 2nd edn (revised and expanded), 2 vols, London 1991
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1993J. Welu, Judith Leyster: A Dutch Master and her World (exh. cat. Frans Hals Museum, 16 May - 22 August 1993; Worcester Art Museum, 19 September - 5 December 1993), Zwolle 1993
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1996J. Bryant, 'The Dark Side of "The Kitten": A Wright of Derby for Kenwood', Apollo, CXLIV/418, 1996, pp. 18-9
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1997M. Westermann, The Amusements of Jan Steen: Comic Painting in the Seventeenth Century, Zwolle 1997
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2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
Frame
This is a seventeenth-century Dutch cabinetmaker’s frame. The ebony box frame features a high-top back edge with an edge roll. This leads into a complex moulding characterised by a dominant shallow ogee and intricate lined sight edges, concluding with another edge roll.
This frame was fitted to Leyster’s A Boy and a Girl with a Cat and an Eel in 2011.
About this record
If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.