Just as Impressionist painting appeals to visual pleasure, cats and dogs brighten one s emotions. Put the two together and the result is pure delight. In their bril-liant images of modernity and leisure, Impressionist painters often painted pets. Household animals were a part of middle-class life captured by works whose pictorial riches reveal the comfort and wellbeing of nineteenth-century pros-perity. This book aims at expanding and deepening the appreciation both of pets and art by combining imagery with historical knowledge. As an art histo-rian who adores Impressionist paintings and quotidian quadrupeds, I want to share what I have learned of the light they shed on one another.

Introduction

Animal Images in Modern Light

   1

Beasts Compared with Man

   2

The Artist's Special Companions

The Avant-Garde Animal

The Painter's Best Friend

The Artist as a Rover

   3

Gone to the Dog's House

Snooty Family Values

Who Had a Bone to Pick?

Ladies and Their Lappers

   4

Renoir's Love Affair with Cats

Postscript and Acknowledgments

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Photograph Credits

Index