engraving, watermark proprietary watermark
14.2 x 18.2 cm (plate); 16 x 20 cm (sheet)
Hollstein 42, second and final state [1], a very good and rich impression, with margins, there is some discolouration to the paper (mainly visible verso) and there is some occasional surface dirt, there are some scattered stains, mainly in the edges, there is an almost invisible diagonal crease lower right, the sheet is in otherwise good condition
Provenance:
Unknown collector’s mark ‘D’ (handwritten mark, 17th or 18th century) (L. 3173). George Usslaub (1845-1929) (L. 1221).

Despite Cornelis Visscher’s short career – the artist died when about 30 years old – he left a substantial drawn and printed œuvre, which includes some of the most celebrated 17th century genre prints such as The Gypsy, The Rat-catcher and The Large Cat. Visscher’s drawings, mostly executed in black chalk on vellum, were praised by Arnold Houbraken, who noted that his drawings were of such quality that he could not think of a better example for young artists. [2] Furthermore, Visscher’s prints were highly praised and sought after throughout the 18th- and 19th century as evidenced by the two catalogue raisonné’s which were published shortly after each other in 1864 [3] and 1865. [4]

The Large Cat is without doubt one of, if not the most famous prints that the artist produced. In the words of Elisabeth Foucart-Walter and Pierre Rosenberg, The Large Cat is ‘’One of the finest and doubtless oldest portrayals of a cat [...]. In this veritable tour de force crouches a cat, and behind it a mouse [...]. Even if one can discern a certain complicity between the artist and his model – which could only be his own cat – it would obviously be inappropriate to label this engraving a ‘’portrait’’.’’ [5] Indeed, the present engraving was without doubt not intended as a portrait of the artist’s own cat, but should be viewed in the tradition of animal depictions in the graphic arts starting with Martin Schongauer’s elephant and Albrecht Dürer’s rhinoceros some 150 years before.

While 15th- and 16th century prints showing single animals mainly depicted exotic animals, prints of single native, and often domestic, animals became hugely popular in the Northern Netherlands in the 17th century. Unsurprisingly, farm animals such as sheep,cows and horses – who played a crucial role in the economic boom that the Netherlands was experiencing at the time – were depicted in a large number of single prints or print series by artists such as Paulus Potter, Nicolaes Berchem, Karel du Jardin and Pieter van Laer. Domestic animals like dogs and cats too appear in countless prints, drawings and paintings with a host of allegorical, religious and moralistic connotations. Besides their moralistic and allegorical connotations (cats were associated with sight and freedom, amongst others), cats played a important and practical role in Dutch 17th-century cities. Despite the authorities’ efforts to keep cities free of rodents, Dutch cities were riddled with mice and rats, and cats played a crucial role in households to keep their numbers to a minimum.

The design for the present print was in the collection of the great collector Jacob de
Vos Jbz. until it was sold in 1883. It was later acquired by baron Edmond de Rothschild who bequeathed it (as part of his monumental bequest) to the Louvre, Paris. [6] The sheet, showing the same composition but without the mouse and grill in reverse, is signed and dated 1657, giving a rather precise date for the engraving, given the fact that Visscher died in 1658.

[1] C. Schuckman, Hollstein’s Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts. ca. 1450-1700, Volume XL, Cornelis de Visscher [...] Lambert Visscher, Roosendaal, 1992, p. 46.
[2] A. Houbraken, De groote Schouburgh der Nederlantsche Konstschilders en Schilderessen [...], Amsterdam, 1753, vol. 3, [second edition], p. 77.
[3] W. Smith, A catalogue of the works of Cornelius Visscher, Bungay, 1864.
[4] J. Wussin, Cornelis Visscher. Verzeichnis seiner Kupferstiche, Leipzig, 1865.
[5] E. Foucart-Walter and P. Rosenberg, The painted cat. The cat in Western painting from the fifteenth to the twentieth century, Paris, 1988, p. 39.
[6] Inv. 563; J. Hawley, The Drawings of Cornelis Visscher (1628/9-1658), unpublsiehd PhD. dissertation, University of Virginia, no. A120.