Woman with a Cat (1944)

Jankel Adler

oil on canvas

Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums

Photo credit: Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums

Classification:

Painting

Materials:

Oil, Canvas

Physical Object Description:

Portrait of woman facing the painter with cats and vases displayed on a table in front of her

Dimensions:

112.2 x 87.4 cm

Accession Number:

ABDAG002283

Credit:

Presented by the Contemporary Art Society, 1952

Scheme:

Historic Purchase by Purchaser (1914-2008)

Ownership history:

Purchased by Philip Hendy (1900-1880) and Denis Mathews (1913-1997) for the Contemporary Art Society, 1951; presented to Aberdeen Art Gallery, 1952

Relationship:

Philip Hendy Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums

Subject:

Woman, Animals (farm), Cats, Interiors, Expressionism

Jankel Adler came to Scotland with the Polish forces during WW2 in 1940. He and his fellow Polish artist friend, Josef Herman RA (1911-2000) became influential members of the Glasgow New Art Club founded by J. D. Fergusson (1874-1961). Adler moved to London in 1943, sharing a house with 'the two Roberts', the painters Robert Colquhoun (1914-1962) and Robert MacBryde (1913-1966), whose style he also greatly influenced.

The Woman with the Cat (1944) is painted in a Post-Cubist and Post-Expressionist style. The figure of the woman has been abstracted and the composition reduced to a formal arrangement of texture, colour and line. The schematic patterning of shapes of vivid colour are held together by a strong linear framework.

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