Like many of you, I am adapting to life with cat co-workers. Edgar B Partridge and Dulcibella Mopsa have been used to having a quiet house during the week but now they have their 8 year old human sister full time and have also taken on new job roles. Depending on what side of the kitchen table they choose to be on they are either Assistant Keepers or School Cats (providing a welcome head to stroke during the trials of home schooling). So far they seem to be very good at their new roles.
They also give me exercise by meowing to come inside the house several times a day and as long as they have a chair to sit on and the occasional treat they are quite self-contained. I think Edward Bawden’s cats must have been similar, I can’t imagine he was able to create the huge body of work he left to The Higgins Bedford with a cat that jumped on his lino blocks or yowled constantly for attention.
Cats appear in so much of his work. Amongst my favourites are the watercolours he made of Emma Nelson, his beautiful black rescue cat who he depicts in different rooms of his home in Saffron Walden. Sadly we don’t have any in the collection but we do have a depiction of one of Emma’s predecessors from Boxing Day, 1981. She can be seen, in the perfect spot for a cat on a cold day, in front of the gas stove, which Bawden has added wheels, a funnel and a cloud of smoke to turn it into a locomotive for the entertainment of his family.
In his advertising work, his cats are far more active and mischievous. For Fortnum and Mason's Christmas Catalogue, they drink and dance the night away at cocktail parties. However it’s the illustrations for Christmas card for The Twentieth Century which are my favourite, as the cats are at their most playful. They chase their food around the sitting room, play ‘blind cat’s buff’ with a fish and even play tunes on the the violin!
Written by Victoria Partridge, Keeper of Fine and Decorative Art
They also give me exercise by meowing to come inside the house several times a day and as long as they have a chair to sit on and the occasional treat they are quite self-contained. I think Edward Bawden’s cats must have been similar, I can’t imagine he was able to create the huge body of work he left to The Higgins Bedford with a cat that jumped on his lino blocks or yowled constantly for attention.
Cats appear in so much of his work. Amongst my favourites are the watercolours he made of Emma Nelson, his beautiful black rescue cat who he depicts in different rooms of his home in Saffron Walden. Sadly we don’t have any in the collection but we do have a depiction of one of Emma’s predecessors from Boxing Day, 1981. She can be seen, in the perfect spot for a cat on a cold day, in front of the gas stove, which Bawden has added wheels, a funnel and a cloud of smoke to turn it into a locomotive for the entertainment of his family.
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| Edward Bawden (1903-1989) Decoration for my Studio on the Occasion of a Boxing Day given to the Family by the Artist. 1981 © The Edward Bawden Estate |
In his advertising work, his cats are far more active and mischievous. For Fortnum and Mason's Christmas Catalogue, they drink and dance the night away at cocktail parties. However it’s the illustrations for Christmas card for The Twentieth Century which are my favourite, as the cats are at their most playful. They chase their food around the sitting room, play ‘blind cat’s buff’ with a fish and even play tunes on the the violin!
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Edward Bawden (1903-1989) Fortnum and Mason’s Christmas
Catalogue, 1956 © The Edward Bawden Estate
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Edward Bawden (1903-1989) Christmas card for The Twentieth
Century, 1958 © The Edward Bawden Estate
The Twentieth Century was a
monthly literary and political journal. As well as Christmas cards, Bawden
designed most of the front covers between 1955 and 1961. |
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