Girl Playing with a Cat c. 1769 - 1770

Curator: Look at how serenely she regards the small cat at her feet. I find Suzuki Harunobu's “Girl Playing with a Cat,” a woodblock print from around 1769 or 1770, so incredibly peaceful. Editor: It’s that narrow, vertical format combined with muted palette, right? A study in recessive tones that emphasizes the surface of the print itself. What else strikes you? Curator: Harunobu excels at portraying domestic intimacy. The girl, likely a young woman of leisure, teases the cat with a string. The cat, seemingly suspended mid-leap, gives the impression of shared delight. Beyond that, I read in the piece elements of cultural memory, for example, of aristocratic women portrayed with cats to denote luck and luxury. Editor: I agree. Formally speaking, the curve of the woman’s body and the cat’s arching back echoes the curves of the round fan motifs decorating her kimono. And the strong diagonal pull of the string anchored in the upper left visually leads the viewer’s eye down to the focused interaction with the playful cat. I also notice a few scattered motifs of stylized leaves and what seem to be blossoms throughout, drawing together that pictorial plane. Curator: These details speak to Harunobu's ingenuity within ukiyo-e printmaking, depicting daily life with extraordinary attention to nuance and subtlety. In Japanese folklore, cats are also associated with warding off evil spirits and, of course, bringing good fortune. Her act of playing embodies a lightness of spirit. The print offers a tender observation of fleeting joy. Editor: Perhaps! It certainly strikes a lovely, contained mood. Though, given its composition, and the artist's careful control over visual cadence, I still feel there's more attention being paid to the pictorial language rather than the depicted action. Curator: Perhaps that is where our reading differs, after all! Editor: It seems so. It's always rewarding to realize there are such divergent points of engagement.