Agnes and Her Cat
1917
20th Century
30 in. x 25 in.
Lilian Westcott Hale,
American,
(1880–1963)
Medium and Support:
oil on canvas
Credit Line:
Florence Griswold Museum, Gift of The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company
Accession Number:
2002.1.63
"Agnes and Her Cat" was created when Hale was at the height of her powers as an oil painter. Between 1915-1919, she executed a small and distinguished group of three-quarter length figurative paintings of young women, focusing on their individual facial features while posing them seated in an ornate chair before an oriental screen. The dreamy-eyed woman potrayed in "Agnes and Her Cat" seems far removed from the concerns of daily life and sits in an early to mid-17th Century turned chair. Hale often featured historically important types of furniture in her paintings and these are meant to signify the artist's regard for tradition, beauty and craftmanship. The painting was exhibited in Boston in 1917 and won critical acclaim as a strikingly beautiful single figure piece. The model was Agnes Dogget (later Mrs. Charles Ruddy).