Twisting Cat

Caught in a moment of pure feline abandon, this tabby rolls onto its back with paws reaching up toward the sky and body twisted into that impossible shape only cats can pull off. The piece is called "Twisting Cat," painted in 1930 by Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita, a Japanese-French artist who made a name for himself in Paris during the 1920s. Foujita adored cats and drew them endlessly, even releasing an entire book of cat sketches the same year. Anyone who has shared a home with one of these creatures will know this pose right away, that funny blend of awkward and elegant as it flops over to bare its belly.

Foujita's real gift was mixing two worlds. He took the crisp ink lines and gentle brushwork of Japanese painting and combined them with the muted colors and everyday subjects that Europe favored at the time. That balance shows up in the soft gray washes here, along with the patient strokes that catch each whisker and stripe. He was among the rare Japanese painters to earn genuine fame in the buzzing Paris scene, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Picasso and Modigliani, yet he always kept a thread of his roots in the work.

The charm of this painting lies in its plainness. It does not reach for drama or hidden meaning. A cat is simply being a cat, and that quiet honesty is more than enough.