Alphonse Legros
The Black Cat
c. 1861
Scroll
Alphonse Legros
The Black Cat
c. 1861
Physical Qualities
Etching, Sheet: 337 × 459 mm. (13 1/4 × 18 1/16 in.)
Plate: 270 × 371 mm. (10 5/8 × 14 5/8 in.)
Portfolio/Series
From the series "Edgar Allan Poe's Imaginary Tales"
Credit Line
Purchase with exchange funds from Garrett Collection
Object Number
1978.122
Legros highlights the moment when the narrator’s crime is discovered, intensifying the scene through contrast and shadow. The policeman’s torch illuminates his horrified colleagues as they restrain the husband. The torch sheds light on the wife, still beautiful and pristine, a departure from Poe’s description of the corpse “already greatly decayed and clotted with gore.”
Doreen Bolger, BMA, "Edgar Allan Poe: A Baltimore Icon," 4 October 2009 - 17 January 2010.
Doreen Bolger, BMA, "Haunting Visions of Poe; Illustrations by Manet, Matisse & Gauguin," Sept. 17, 2003-Jan. 11, 2004.
Doreen Bolger, BMA, "Haunting Visions of Poe; Illustrations by Manet, Matisse & Gauguin," Sept. 17, 2003-Jan. 11, 2004.
Signed: 1
Inscribed: lower left in graphite: "Legros Pinx"; by later hands, across bottom in graphite: "chat noir only state (From the F.E Bliss coll.)
Markings: CM: Francis Edward Bliss (Lugt 988)
