Little girl with cat 1901

Théophile Alexandre Steinlen created this print of a young girl and a cat using lithography. Steinlen was a social realist artist in France, at the time when the avant-garde was flourishing. He drew subject matter from everyday life, particularly the urban working class and their pets. Here we see a girl dressed in simple clothing, seated on a humble wooden chair. She is not looking at us, but at her cat. Both figures are isolated, with their backs turned. The setting is stark, with bare walls. The image creates meaning through empathy. Steinlen had socialist sympathies. He gave his illustrations to leftist magazines. The artist challenged the institutions of art by representing the lives of people who were excluded from mainstream society. To understand Steinlen's world better, we can look at periodicals such as "La Caricature" and "Le Chat Noir" as well as archives related to French socialist movements in the late nineteenth century.