Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, New Jersey, USA
Location History:
Acquired in China between 1898 and circa 1926 by DuBois Schanck Morris (Princeton Class of 1893), who was based in Anhui province, China, during that period; the painting was later gifted to the Princeton University Art Museum in 1947.
Min Zhen's hanging scroll known as Black Cat presents a single, large feline rendered almost entirely in ink monochrome on paper, without any setting, ground line, or surrounding object to anchor it in space. The animal occupies the composition alone, its bulk built up through varied ink tones — dense, saturated strokes for the darkest fur, and lighter, drier brushwork where the coat catches an implied light. This deliberate emptiness around the subject is a hallmark of the loose, expressive brushwork associated with the "eccentric" Yangzhou painters, a loosely defined circle of eighteenth-century Qing dynasty artists (sometimes including Min Zhen) who broke from academic convention in favor of spontaneity and individual voice. Min Zhen, orphaned young and known to have painted with his bare fingers on occasion rather than a brush, was chiefly recognized for figure painting, so a large-scale animal study like this one stands out within his broader body of work. Two seals appear near the signature: a square relief seal reading "Min Zhen" and a second, intaglio seal. The scroll itself is substantial once mounted — measuring roughly 78.5 by 38.5 centimeters for the painted surface alone, and stretching to 231 by 58.2 centimeters including its full silk mounting, a scale that would have made the piece a commanding presence when hung. No date is inscribed on the work, and the museum records it simply as eighteenth century, in keeping with the artist's active years in Hubei province during the Qing dynasty. The painting's focus on a single ordinary animal, isolated and enlarged, gives it an unusual intimacy and humor rare among more formal Qing-era paintings of the period.
Min Zhen was a Chinese painter from 1700s, Qing dynasty. He was from Yangzhou group. Those painters didn't like to follow strict rules, they liked to paint free and funny things. He mostly painted people, so painting a big cat was different for him. The meaning is very simple - he found beauty in a normal animal. In old times people painted dragons, tigers, gods. But he painted a common black cat and made it big and important. The empty space around shows that the cat alone is enough.It also feels a bit funny and close to us. The cat looks like a real pet, chubby and lazy, not a scary animal. It shows his love for simple life. He sometimes even painted with his fingers, not brush, so you can see soft ink marks. I feel the painting says we don't need big things to make art. A normal cat can also be special.
