John Kay The Favourite Cat Colorized Card

Through his engravings, John Kay (1742-1826) caricatured hundreds of Edinburgh politicians and celebrities. Some of his subjects didn’t appreciate his wit: Kay was often threatened with lawsuits. It’s said that some of his artwork was purchased by people who wanted to prevent it from being seen by anyone else. The subject of this engraving, the French painter Maurice Quentin de La Tour, would not have minded Kay’s caricature of his self-portrait: de La Tour had passed away over two decades before. Many artists had already parodied de La Tour’s self-portrait, perhaps because of the way the French artist painted himself pointing beyond the frame. Read more about this painting at CatArtists.org. This version of the engraving has been digitally colorized.