Profiel van een zittende en een liggende kat c. 1892

Julie de Graag made this drawing, 'Profile of a Sitting and a Lying Cat', which is now held at the Rijksmuseum. The work presents two studies of cats, sketched with a delicate, almost ethereal touch. The composition is deceptively simple: a seated cat on the left and a reclining one on the right, both rendered in soft, muted tones that barely emerge from the paper’s surface. The artist’s handling of line is particularly striking, with each contour seeming to dissolve into the background, challenging our perception of form and space. De Graag employs a minimalist approach, reducing the subjects to their essential shapes. This reduction invites us to consider the underlying structure of representation itself. Are these cats or merely suggestions of cats? In its subtle interplay of presence and absence, this drawing deconstructs traditional notions of form. It suggests that the essence of an object lies not in its concrete depiction but in the space it occupies within our perception. It is through this delicate balance that 'Profile of a Sitting and a Lying Cat' offers a profound meditation on the nature of seeing and being.