The Black Cat, for Edgar Allan Poe's “Selected Tales of Mystery"

Author Related author Edgar Allan Poe American

1909

Not on view

Byam Shaw here illustrates "The Black Cat," a story by Edgar Allan Poe that relates how a wife-murderer inadvertently walls up a cat with his spouse's corpse, then is eventually betrayed by the animal's cries. The artist focuses on the tale's dramatic denoument, using broken bricks and falling plaster to frame a furious one-eyed cat perched atop the body (all we see of the latter is a patch of brown hair and glimpse of a brilliant purple gown). Poe's macabre stories strongly appealed to imaginative artists who worked from the 1890s into the early 20th century, a period considered the golden age of book illustration.

Artwork Details

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Provenance

References

Title: The Black Cat, for Edgar Allan Poe's “Selected Tales of Mystery"
Artist: John Byam Liston Shaw (British, Ferndale, Madras, India, 1872–1919 London)
Author: Related author Edgar Allan Poe (American, Boston, Massachusetts 1809–1849 Baltimore, Maryland)
Date: 1909
Medium: Watercolor and gouache (bodycolor)
Dimensions: Image: 8 3/8 × 5 7/8 in. (21.3 × 14.9 cm)
Sheet: 13 3/4 × 10 13/16 in. (35 × 27.5 cm)
Classification: Drawings
Credit Line: Gift of Margaret Murray and Michael Blodget, 2018
Object Number: 2018.898.2
Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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