Le chat noir thumbnail 1
Image of Gallery in South Kensington
Request to view at the Prints & Drawings Study Room, level C , Case IONIDES, Shelf 11, Box B

Le chat noir

Print
ca. 1860-1861 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Alphonse Legros made a series of etchings illustrating the macabre stories of the American writer Edgar Allan Poe, translated into French by Charles Baudelaire in the mid 1850s. 'Le chat noir' ('The Black Cat') is the story of a murdered girl whose body is bricked up inside a wall. With vigourous, almost crude lines Legros represents the awful climax of the story: the discovery of the corpse when the mewing of a cat, also interred, reveals its presence.


Object details

Category
Object type
Titles
  • Le chat noir
  • The black cat
Materials and techniques
Etching
Brief description
Alphonse Legros, 'Le chat noir' ('The black cat'), illustration to Edgar Allan Poe, ca.1860-61, etching
Physical description
Etching showing six men on the left of the composition reacting in horror to the emergence of the corpse of a young woman from a wall on the far right with a cat standing on its head.
Dimensions
  • Height: 26.1cm
  • Width: 36.2cm
Style
Credit line
Bequeathed by Constantine Alexander Ionides
Object history
Bequeathed by C.A. Ionides, 1900
Subjects depicted
Literary referenceIllustration to Edgar Allan Poe, 'Le chat noir' or 'The Black Cat'
Summary
Alphonse Legros made a series of etchings illustrating the macabre stories of the American writer Edgar Allan Poe, translated into French by Charles Baudelaire in the mid 1850s. 'Le chat noir' ('The Black Cat') is the story of a murdered girl whose body is bricked up inside a wall. With vigourous, almost crude lines Legros represents the awful climax of the story: the discovery of the corpse when the mewing of a cat, also interred, reveals its presence.
Bibliographic reference
Manet : Inventeur du moderne, Paris : Gallimard, 2011 no.116
Collection
Accession number
CAI.180

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Record createdMarch 31, 2008
Record URL
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