The Large Cat (1657): Artwork and History

The Large Cat (1657) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Cornelis Visscher Dutch, c. 1629-1658.

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

Cornelis Visscher’s engraving is one of the softest, most tactile renditions of a cat ever printed. The breathless mouse sneaking by the corner grate seems barely present in contrast, so light and ghostly is its fur. In a culture where cats were domestic staples (as dispatchers of vermin) rather than treasured pets, Visscher created a particularly memorable portrait.

Object facts

• Title: The Large Cat
• Date: 1657
• Artist attribution: Cornelis Visscher Dutch, c. 1629-1658
• Place of origin: Holland
• Medium: Engraving on ivory paper
• Dimensions: Sheet: 14.3 × 18.5 cm (5 11/16 × 7 5/16 in.)
• Type: Print
• Department: Prints and Drawings
• Reference number: 1923.994

Collection credit

Gift of Horace S. Oakley

View the original

Explore the artwork in the Art Institute's collection, including its image and the museum's current catalogue details.

The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.