The Black Cat, for Edgar Allan Poe’s “Tales of Mystery and the Imagination,” Chicago, 1895–96

The Black Cat, for Edgar Allan Poe’s “Tales of Mystery and the Imagination,” Chicago, 1895–96

Aubrey Vincent Beardsley

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Responding to Poe's "The Black Cat," Beardsley shows the ferocious one-eyed feline that the narrator mistakenly walled up with the corpse of his wife. Revealed when the wall is broken through, the furious animal sits on the dead woman’s upright head, which the artist represents with masterful economy, using black lines against a white ground. In contrast, the background wall and cat are almost completely black, apart from a circular patch of white fur on the chest. This is one of four drawings that Beardsley made to illustrate a new American edition of Poe's "Tales of Mystery and the Imagination." The commission came from the Chicago publisher Stone and Kimball in December 1893 and the artist wrote in response that he believed the material offered "an admirable chance of picture making." Beginning in February 1894, Beardsley completed four of the eight requested designs. Related sets of prints were issued in portfolios that accompanied deluxe Japanese vellum versions of the publication in 1895-96.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Black Cat, for Edgar Allan Poe’s “Tales of Mystery and the Imagination,” Chicago, 1895–96The Black Cat, for Edgar Allan Poe’s “Tales of Mystery and the Imagination,” Chicago, 1895–96The Black Cat, for Edgar Allan Poe’s “Tales of Mystery and the Imagination,” Chicago, 1895–96The Black Cat, for Edgar Allan Poe’s “Tales of Mystery and the Imagination,” Chicago, 1895–96The Black Cat, for Edgar Allan Poe’s “Tales of Mystery and the Imagination,” Chicago, 1895–96

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.