The Black Cat, for Edgar Allan Poe's “Selected Tales of Mystery,” 1909

John Byam Liston Shaw|Edgar Allan Poe

1909 · Watercolor and gouache (bodycolor) · Drawings and Prints

Byam Shaw here illustrates "The Black Cat," a story by Edgar Allan Poe that relates how a wife-murderer inadvertently walls up a cat with his spouse's corpse, then is eventually betrayed by the animal's cries. The artist focuses on the tale's dramatic denoument, using broken bricks and falling plaster to frame a furious one-eyed cat perched atop the body (all we see of the latter is a patch of brown hair and glimpse of a brilliant purple gown). Poe's macabre stories strongly appealed to imaginative artists who worked from the 1890s into the early 20th century, a period considered the golden age of book illustration.

Artist

John Byam Liston Shaw|Edgar Allan Poe

Date

1909

Medium

Watercolor and gouache (bodycolor)

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Gift of Margaret Murray and Michael Blodgett, 2018