Elizabeth Bonsall is a young American artist who has exhibited some good
cat pictures, and whose work promises to make her famous some day, if
she does not "weary in well-doing"; and Mr. Jean Paul Selinger's
"Kittens" are quite well known.
The good cat illustrator is even more rare than the cat painters.
Thousands of readers recall those wonderfully lifelike cats and kittens
which were a feature of the _St. Nicholas_ a few years ago,
accompanied by "nonsense rhymes" or "jingles." They were the work of
Joseph G. Francis, of Brookline, Mass., and brought him no little fame.
He was, and is still, a broker on State Street, Boston, and in his busy
life these inimitable cat sketches were but an incident. Mr. Francis is
a devoted admirer of all cats, and had for many years loved and studied
one cat in particular. It was by accident that he discovered his own
possibilities in the line of cat drawing, as he began making little
pen-and-ink sketches for his own amusement and then for that of his
friends. The latter persuaded him to send some of these drawings to the
_St. Nicholas_ and the _Wide-Awake_ magazines, and, rather to
his surprise, they were promptly accepted, and the "Francis cats" became
famous. Mr. Francis does but little artistic work, nowadays, more
important business keeping him well occupied; besides, he says, he "is
not in the mood for it."
Who does not know Louis Wain's cats?--that prince of English
illustrators.
Pages:
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167