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Roderic O’Conor (1860-1940)
Femme Assise Avec Chat Sur Ses Genoux
Oil on canvas, 91 x 71 cm (35.75 x 28”)
Signed, stamped ‘atelier O’Conor’ verso
Provenance: Studio of the artist. Sold Hotel Drouot, Paris, Vente O’Conor, 7 February 1956:
Oscar Ghez, Musée du Petit Palais, Geneva
This portrait is unusual for it is the only known painting by O’Conor to include a depiction of a cat. The down-turned
head and closed eyes of the model suggest that she is asleep, like the Siamese cat she is cradling. That the artist
decided to share this moment of quiet intimacy with us is typical of his approach in the years leading upto the First
World War. The painting may be dated to around 1914.
Most of the picture has been executed in one sitting, applying the paint thinly with brushes. After this diluted layer
had dried, the artist returned to the canvas in order to build up the hair and face of the model using opaque pigment.
Having reached this stage, however, for reasons known only to himself, O’Conor decided not to extend the same
treatment to the rest of the painting. perhaps the cat could not be persuaded to keep still a second time, or a conflict
may have arisen over the need to complete other works that were in progress at the same time.
The way the composition of the present picture is divided in two across a diagonal from top left to bottom right
echoes a very similar arrangement in another painting by O’Conor: “Portrait of a Woman in a Mauve Blouse” (See
Jonathan Benington, Roderic O’Conor, A Biography with a Catalogue of His work, 1992, plate 48). The shiny brown
hair of the model in the latter work has been gathered at the sides and back of the head, in a similar fashion to that
of the model in “Femme Assise avec Chat sur ses Genoux”. Both models also have strongly delineated eyebrows,
suggesting that they may be depictions of the same siiter.
Jonathan Benington
€8,000 - €12,000