The Black Cat

Today is Black Cat Day. Do you believe they bring luck or rather misfortune?

In his response to Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, The Black Cat, the English illustrator and author Aubrey Beardsley depicted the menacing, one-eyed feline that the narrator inadvertently entombs with the corpse of his wife. When the wall is broken open, the enraged creature appears perched upon the woman’s upright head—a grisly scene the artist renders with striking economy, using spare black lines against a stark white ground. By contrast, the wall and cat are rendered in near-solid black, relieved only by a white patch of fur on the animal’s chest.

This drawing is one of four that Beardsley produced to illustrate a new American edition of Poe’s Tales of Mystery and the Imagination. Commissioned by the Chicago publishers Stone and Kimball in December 1893, Beardsley remarked that the material offered “an admirable chance of picture making.” Beginning work in February 1894, he completed four of the eight requested designs. 

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P.P.S. Follow black cats in art for the spooky season!