Notes

There is a striking photograph of Maggie Laubser with a black cat in her arms in the archives of the University of Stellenbosch. Spontaneously images of a mother with a child in her arms are conjured up. This photo dates from the early 1930s.

The cat features prominently in Laubser’s output during 1930-40: either together with young girls or women or in still lifes next to flowers in vases or fruit as for example Cat and Pumpkin (circa 1936). Three works in which a cat sits next to a pumpkin are documented. 

Nevertheless, she painted cats much earlier; their presence can be traced to The Happy Mother, a rendering of a proud cat mother with her four kittens that Laubser painted in 1906. This homely picture of five cats nestling around a tin chest foreshadows the much later still lifes.

In 1922 Laubser, on her return to South Africa after her initial exposure to painting overseas, again turns to the cat as subject matter. She portrays two cats (oil on cardboard). On the back of that painting is the following annotation: “Maggie Laubser Strand 1922 one of my very first”. In 1930 she engages these cats, together with objects that resemble small pumpkins in Figures: Cats and Fruit. This is a loosely painted composition carried out in broad brush strokes. One of the cats, nearest to the ‘fruit’ faces it. This snippet finds further expression in the masterly painted Cat and Pumpkin. Thus by 1930 the mother figure of 1906 disappears. She is replaced by young girls or women, vases with flowers or pumpkins and of her four kittens one or two mature cats remain.

Cat and Pumpkin, a picture of the utmost simplicity, signifies more than meets the eye. The main role players, a cat and a pumpkin, occupy the forefront , the stage: a table. The backdrop consists of the five prominent vertical rails of a chair. Apart from a bright orange the dominating palette is cool and consists of greens and blues.

It is the colour of the pumpkin, the orange that catches the eye. The brightness that exudes from it reflects in the eyes of the cat that intently looks at the pumpkin. Thus the main role players connect.

In Egyptian mythology Bast is the Cat goddess and is symbolised by the image of the cat. She is the protector of marriages. She isß also associated with the moon which is linked to women. Additionally the five chair rails signify the union between heaven and earth (known as hieros gammos). Against this background Laubser’s interpretation of the cat and the pumpkin expands the concept still life.

In Cat and Pumpkin the absent mother is replaced by the pumpkin. The cat intently looks at her (the pumpkin) and visibly the response between them becomes apparent. The warmth of the pumpkin’s orange reflects in the cat’s eyes. They link and the cat takes on Bast’s role to protect the seed bearing pumpkin with its promise of resuscitating life.

 

Elza Miles

 

1. Dalene Marais (1994): Maggie Laubser, her paintings, drawings and graphics. Johannesburg: Perskor. Page 191.

Provenance

Dr JW Groenewald, Bloemfontein.

A Private Collection.

Literature

Dalene Marais (1994). Maggie Laubser: Her Paintings, Drawings and Graphics, Johannesburg and Cape Town: Perskor. Illustrated on page 297, catalogue number 1209, with the title Still Life with Cat and Pumpkin.