Etching, drypoint and oil paint on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/marc-chagall-881" aria-label="More by Marc Chagall" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Marc Chagall</a>
Cat Transformed into a Woman
Presented by Lady Clerk 1947
actions: postures and motions
animal / human
animals: fantastic
animals: mammals
cat
chair
de la Fontaine, Jean, ‘Fables’
domestic
furnishings
interior - non-specific
interiors
literature (not Shakespeare)
literature and fiction
objects
people
sitting
table
<p>In 1926 Ambroise Vollard commissioned Chagall to illustrate La Fontaine's 'Fables'. 'The Cat Transformed into a Woman' illustrates the story of a man who so adored his cat that he was able to turn her into a woman and marry her. He thought she would be the perfect wife. However, he soon realised he could not change her in every respect, as she still chased mice. This work is one of a hundred etchings executed by Chagall for the 'Fables'. Vollard was criticized for not commissioning a French artist, but he believed Chagall shared the same aesthetic sense as La Fontaine, 'being at the same time naive and subtle, realistic and fantastic'.</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2004</em></p>
paper unique etching drypoint oil paint
11 March 2003 – 4 November 2003
2003-11-04
11 March 2003 – 23 June 2003
2003-06-23
2003-03-11
Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais (Paris, France)
26 July 2003 – 4 November 2003
2003-11-04
2003-07-26
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (San Francisco, USA)
2003-03-11
Marc Chagall
Loan-out
25 May 2018 – 30 September 2018
2018-09-30
25 May 2018 – 30 September 2018
2018-09-30
2018-05-25
Turner Contemporary (Margate, UK)
2018-05-25
Animals & Us
Loan-out
The Cat Transformed into a Woman
Support: 295 × 241 mm
Frame: 545 X 464 X 30 mm
Presented by Lady Clerk 1947
<p>In 1926 Ambroise Vollard commissioned Chagall to  illustrate La Fontaine's 'Fables'. 'The Cat  Transformed into a Woman' illustrates the story of  a man who so adored his cat that he was able to  turn her into a woman and marry her. He thought  she would be the perfect wife. However, he soon  realised he could not change her in every respect,  as she still chased mice. This work is one of a  hundred <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/etching" title="Glossary definition for 'Etching'"><span>etchings</span></a> executed by Chagall for  the 'Fables'. Vollard was criticized for not  commissioning a French artist, but he believed  Chagall shared the same aesthetic sense as La  Fontaine, 'being at the same time <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/n/naive" title="Glossary definition for 'Naïve'"><span>naive</span></a> and  subtle, realistic and fantastic'.</p>
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2004-08-18T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>Marc Chagall</b><span> born 1887 [- 1985] </span>
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<p><span><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/chagall-the-cat-transformed-into-a-woman-n05759" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05759</span></a> </span><b>La Chatte métamorphosée en Femme</b><span> (The Cat transformed into a Woman) </span><i>c.</i><span>1928-31/1937 </span>
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<p><span>Inscribed 'Marc Chagall' on the plate b.l. (the surname is written over the one in the plate itself); mount inscribed 'Epreuve d'artiste' b.l.</span>
<br/><span>Etching and drypoint, hand-coloured in oil, 11 5/8 x 9 1/2 (29.5 x 24)</span>
<br/><span>Presented by Lady Clerk 1947</span>
<br/><i>Prov:</i><span>
Lady Clerk, Paris and London (gift from the artist </span><i>c.</i><span>1937)</span>
<br/><i>Lit:</i><span>
Ambroise Vollard, </span><i>Recollections of a Picture Dealer</i><span>
(Paris 1936), p.261; Una E. Johnson, </span><i>Ambroise Vollard, Editeur, 1867-1939</i><span> (New York 1944), No.36, pp.72-3 (the etching for this work repr. pl.19); James Johnson Sweeney, </span><i>Marc Chagall</i><span> (New York 1946), pp.53-6, 74-5 (the etching repr. p.80); Franz Meyer, </span><i>Marc Chagall. The Graphic Work</i><span> (London 1957), pp.XX-XXII, XXXVI-XXXVII; Franz Meyer, </span><i>Marc Chagall</i><span> (London 1964), pp.344, 347-52, 370, 496, 504, 617 (original gouache of this subject repr. in classified catalogue, No.444) </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>An illustration to one of </span><i>The Fables</i><span> of La Fontaine, the story of a man who so adored his cat that he was able to turn her into a woman and married her the same day. He thought, poor fool, that his wife was now a woman in every respect; but when mice appeared, she still gave chase. As we say in England, 'a leopard cannot change its spots.' </span>
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<p><span>When Vollard commissioned Chagall in 1926 to illustrate </span><i>The Fables</i><span> he was violently criticised for choosing a Russian artist to illustrate this great French <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/classicism" title="Glossary definition for 'Classicism'"><span>classic</span></a>. His idea was to have <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/etching" title="Glossary definition for 'Etching'"><span>etched</span></a> reproductions of <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/g/gouache" title="Glossary definition for 'Gouache'"><span>gouaches</span></a> by Chagall, who made 100 gouaches for this purpose. But it proved too difficult to translate the highly-coloured originals into the new <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/m/medium" title="Glossary definition for 'Medium'"><span>medium</span></a>, and colour had to be abandoned. In the end they were etched by Chagall himself in 1928-31, and printed in black and white by Maurice Potin and L'Imprimerie Nationale. The edition of </span><i>The Fables</i><span> remained unpublished until 1952, thirteen years after Vollard's death, when it was brought out by Tériade. </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>Chagall seems to have got round this limitation by hand-colouring some of the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/print" title="Glossary definition for 'Print'"><span>prints</span></a>. He told the compiler in 1953 that he coloured this particular print for Lady Clerk about 1937 and that, as far as he could remember, it was the only one of this subject that he coloured. Later on, in 1951, when the edition of </span><i>The Fables</i><span> was in preparation, he <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/w/watercolour" title="Glossary definition for 'Watercolour'"><span>watercoloured</span></a> a number of the etchings, and a series of about thirty hand-coloured prints was exhibited at Gimpel Fils in London in 1954. </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>The original gouache for this <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a> is reproduced by Lionello Venturi, </span><i>Marc Chagall</i><span> (New York 1945), pl.31; a preliminary study for it in watercolour was sold at Sotheby's on 25 November 1959, lot 39. </span>
<br/></p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/><span>Ronald Alley, </span><i>Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists</i><span>, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, p.112, reproduced p.112 </span>
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-15T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: postures and motions animal / human animals: fantastic animals: mammals cat chair de la Fontaine, Jean, ‘Fables’ domestic furnishings interior - non-specific interiors literature and fiction literature (not Shakespeare) objects people sitting table