Il gatto

With just a handful of ink strokes, Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita brings this cat to life, and its face tells you everything. The eyes are narrowed in a way that reads as half alert, half annoyed, an expression anyone who has lived with a cat will know instantly. Thin whiskers spread out like stray threads, the ears perk up, and the fur is hinted at rather than filled in. That restraint is exactly what made Foujita's work stand out. His fine, precise lines came partly from Japanese ink painting and partly from the years he spent absorbing the art world of Paris.

Born in Japan, Foujita arrived in Paris in the early 1900s and quickly became a well-known face in the city's bustling creative circles, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Modigliani and Picasso. Cats turned up again and again in his art across his whole life. He kept them as pets and even released a book filled with drawings of them. The match makes sense once you think about it, since a cat's cool self-possession fit neatly with the calm and economy of his style. This little drawing is a modest but genuine piece of that lasting affection, plain in its means yet quietly full of character.