Pretty Woman Holding Kitten 1909

Harrison Fisher made this watercolour and ink drawing, "Pretty Woman Holding Kitten," sometime in the early 20th century. Look how the pale washes of pink in the face echo the rose, and the off-white of the gloves the fur of the kitten. You can almost feel the scratchy-soft fur on the back of your hand. What was Fisher thinking when he rendered the kitten's fur with such a light, blurry touch? Was he trying to capture its fleeting energy? Or was he perhaps drawing on Fragonard's rococo paintings of women? Even the awkward signature is part of the performance, a way of saying, "I was here, I made this." It reminds me of Cy Twombly’s scribbles, elegant and playful at once. All of us painters are just trying to leave our mark, a trace of our presence. We are in constant conversation, across time and space, drawing inspiration from one another.