Cat Asleep

John Nash 1893 - 1977

Summary

Using a monochrome palette this print depicts a sleeping cat using an aerial view. The cat is shown curled up so that its head and back legs meet in the lower half of the composition and the circular shape its body makes fills the space. The cat’s face cannot be fully seen but its whiskers and nose can just be made out. The cat’s fur seems to be patches of black, white and grey, which allows it to stand out from the cushion that it is sleeping on and which acts as a frame for it. The cushion is completely white apart from a bit of black line-work around the edges to suggest the compression the cats weight has made. The rest of the composition is left black and acts as a frame to both the cat and the cushion. The cat is one of several Nash and his wife had at their home Bottengoms in Wormingford, a village in Essex on the bank of the River Stour.