'Ginger Cat With Still Life' by Jay Risling, 1941, Works Progress Administration, Modernist, San Francisco Art Association, Museum of Modern Art

Description

Signed lower right, 'Jay Risling' (American, 1896-1993) and dated 1941.

A psychologically penetrating study of a contented, golden-eyed ginger cat … more Signed lower right, 'Jay Risling' (American, 1896-1993) and dated 1941.

A psychologically penetrating study of a contented, golden-eyed ginger cat shown relaxing beside a Chinese lacquer chest; an accomplished, mid-century work painted when the artist was forty-six years old.

Jay Risling was born in Orleans, California and first studied art at Stanford University. After serving in the Navy in WW1 as a submarine chaser, Risling returned to San Francisco to study at the California School of the Fine Arts. During this period, he also studied at the Denver Academy of Art and, in Monterey, under Armin Hansen. In 1934, after a period as a commercial artist, he opened his San Francisco studio with his wife, the artist Edloe Risling. They were to paint there together for forty-five years. In the 1930's and 1940’s, Risling worked on a number of substantial WPA mural projects including, in 1936 and 1937, with Edith Hamlin on “Civilization Through the Arts and Crafts” and “Mission San Francisco de Asis”, originally installed in San Francisco's Mission Hills School Library. In addition to numerous other WPA projects, he also assisted Dorothy Puccinelli with the murals at the Mother House at the San Francisco Zoo and painted the mural for the Post Office in Guymon, OK. During the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition, he also painted at the Art Palace as a member of the Art in Action group.

He exhibited widely and with success including at the San Francisco Art Association (1924-25, 1935), the Golden Gate International Art Exposition and at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Over the course of a long career, Jay Risling was the recipient of numerous prizes, medals and juried awards. He is listed in all relevant art-reference works including Who Was Who in American Art, Mallett’s Dictionary of Artists and Hughes Dictionary of California Painters.

Reference:
Artists in California 1786-1940, Third Edition, Edan Milton Hughes: Crocker Art Museum, Sheridan Books 2002, Vol. 2, p. 938; Who Was Who in American Art, 1564-1975: 400 Years of Artists in America, Peter Hastings Falk, Sound View Press 1999, Vol. 3, p. 2777; Mallett’s Index of Artists, Supplement, Daniel Trowbridge Mallett, Peter Smith: New York 1948 Edition, R.R. Bowker Company 1940, p. 232; et al. less