On-line gallery
- Reference number
- P06323
- Author
- Goya y Lucientes, Francisco de (Spanish)
- Title
- Catfight
- Chronology
- 1786-1787
- Technique
- Óleo
- Support
- Lienzo
- Measures
- 56,5 cm x 196,5 cm
- School
- Española
- Theme
- Animales
- On display
- Yes
- Procedence
- Pintado en el otoño de 1786. Transferido entre 1856-1857 desde la Real Fábrica de Tapices de Santa Bárbara, Madrid, al Palacio Real (sótanos del oficio de tapicería). Ingresó en el Prado por reales órdenes de 18.1 y 9.2. de 1870. Identificado finalmente y expuesto como de Goya en 1983.
Two cats, their fur standing up and their backs arched, spit and face off on top of a brick wall.
This is one of the cartoons for the Prince and Princess of Asturias' dining room in El Pardo.
As its narrow horizontal format shows, it was designed to hang over a door, a position favored by the perspective the painter gave it. Goya offers a perfect analysis of the cats' postures, which he represents with great naturalism, thanks to the study of this animal appearing in his Italian Notebook from 1771. He repeated this subject in his Caprichos in 1799.
