Man, Cat, and Mackerel

Date1854

Mediumoil on canvas

Dimensions17 1/4 × 21 1/2 in. (43.8 × 54.6 cm)

Donor credit lineODHS Purchase with funds donated by Mrs. Barbara E. Johnson

Object number1972.29

Institutional Credit LineCourtesy of the New Bedford Whaling Museum

DescriptionThis genre scene depicts a Black man, tabby cat, and string of four mackerel hanging from a nail. The composition is divided in the middle. At right in the foreground four mackerel hang from a string and nail against a wooden panel. At left, a cat stares greedily at the fish - separated from the scene by a short wall or box. The cat rests its chin and paws upon a rail and looks hungrily at the fresh fish. Behind the cat, separated again by a third barrier, a Black man looks out at the viewer. His shoulders and face are barely visible, blocked by some kind of architectural opening (indicated by the wooden overhang that crosses his forehead). His arm overhangs a short wall, his hand reaches out towards us. Making eye contact, he smiles and seems to see us looking at the scene. The architecture of the space of the picture is strange; angles, panels, doors and short walls seem to block our view and indicate we are looking into a series of partially hidden or obscured spaces. Is a cupboard open? Do we look into a secreted pantry or closet? What of the space beyond where the Black man stands? The composition raises numerous questions about the meaning of this idiomatic work, the artist's intent, and the audience's understanding.

Stylistically, the work shows the influence of Trompe-l'œil painting - a French term meaning "deceives the eye" that uses realistic imagery to create the illusion that depicted objects are three-dimensional. We see this especially in the rendering of the fish and the grained, carefully patterned wood behind them. The scene also aligns with popular paintings of the period, called "genre painting," that illustrated common sayings or idioms. The works of William Sidney Mount and Richard Caton Woodville, for example, are exemplars. As Angela L Miller, Janet Catherine Berlo, Bryan J Wolf, and Jennifer L Roberts explain: "Genre painting, a catchall term for anecdotal, often humorous or didactic scenes from everyday life, flourished in antebellum America. These paintings portrayed various character "types" - easterners, westerners, city dwellers, country folk, rich people, poor people, dandies, beggars, merchants, housewives, children, servants, and slaves with varying degrees of admiration, sympathy, respect, and, on occasion, disrespect and disdain, reflecting the attitudes of the middle class for whom they were intended. The middle class, however, was not a single, cohesive entity, but was made up of multiple factions with competing interests. Genre paintings, too, reflect the diversity of their audience. Beyond their anecdotal humor, genre paintings sometimes rendered an idealized version of the United States as a nation without conflicts, class divisions, or industrial disruptions. Although genre painting appears to reproduce everyday life, in fact, it only renders a version of it shaped according to certain social, political, or class imperatives. Genre painting, in other words, employs a realistic style to create a fantasy of public and private life."

What might this painting have meant to period viewers? We get a clue from a previous title for the work. "Man, Cat, and Mackerel" has been exhibited under the title "Caught in the Act." While some have interpreted this title to mean that the Black man and the cat both aim to purloin the fish and are therefore caught mid-theft, a compelling and more historically rooted interpretation might align this work with the politics of slavery in the American ante-bellum period. Is this man himself, perhaps, "caught in the act" not of theft but of escape?

New Bedford was a hub of abolitionist activity and a known stop on the Underground Railroad, a clandestine network that aided escaped slaves in reaching freedom in the North. Many self-emancipated individuals, like Frederick Douglass, found refuge and opportunity in New Bedford. As Kathryn Grover explains in her 1998 NPS report on "Fugitive Slave Traffic," in 1850 29.9 percent of the 1,008 persons of color in New Bedford told census takers they had been born in the South. By 1853, the city had the highest Black population per capita in the entire Northeast. Some White residents also worked publicly for abolition. In 1834, the New Bedford Anti-Slavery Society was established as an integrated organization. There was also the Bristol County Anti-Slavery Society. Both, sometimes in cooperation with abolitionists of color, aimed to end slavery.

In 1854, the year this painting was made, two significant events shaped the national debate over slavery: the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Dred Scott v. Sandford case. The Kansas-Nebraska Act allowed for popular sovereignty in newly organized territories, effectively repealing the Missouri Compromise and reopening the slavery issue in the West. Simultaneously, the Dred Scott case was winding its way through the US courts. In 1854, three years before the momentous US Supreme Court decision, the Scotts file a suit in Federal Court. The court finds that he and his family are still enslaved. The Scotts' lawyer then appeals to the Supreme Court of the United States. A second broader context might relate to the Fugitive Slave Act, which was passed in 1850. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was part of the Compromise of 1850. The act required that slaves be returned to their owners, even if they were in a free state. The act also made the federal government responsible for finding, returning, and trying escaped slaves.

The community in New Bedford actively resisted the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Communities of color were vehemently opposed to it. White residents also publicly supported its repeal. For example, Sarah Arnold and Elizabeth Rodman spearheaded a petition that gathered 1,729 signatures specifically for the repeal of the Fugitive Slave Act. Lewis Hayden was an ardent abolitionist, had strong ties to New Bedford and personal reasons to be particularly critical of the Fugitive Slave Act. Born enslaved in Virginia, Hayden married a woman and fathered two sons, who were property of Henry Clay, one of the primary architects of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law. Hayden remarried Harriet Bell and escaped North, traveling to Canada, Detroit, and New Bedford, before settling in Boston, where he and his wife took an active role in Abolitionist activities and politics. In May 1854, Anthony Burns, a fugitive slave from Virginia, was arrested in Boston, sparking significant protests and an attempted courthouse rescue by abolitionists. Described at the time as the "Boston Slave Riot," the unsuccessful attempt by African American abolitionists, led by Lewis Hayden, to rescue captured fugitive slave Anthony Burns from the courthouse ended with the murder of a deputy marshal, James Batchelder.

The events surrounding Anthony Burns' arrest and attempted rescue in Boston further fueled abolitionist outrage and resistance to the Fugitive Slave Act in New Bedford, MA. Could this unnamed figure in Purrington's painting be a portrait of Anthony Burns? Could it have been inspired by the Abolitionist activities unfolding around the artist in 1850s New Bedford? We may never know Purrington's true intentions. However, the political landscape of New Bedford in 1854, the ardent and public abolitionist activities across the city, and the many people of color who fled to the city looking for opportunities make this image of a secreted Black figure, looking the viewer in the eyes, a truly unique and potentially "radical" image for its time. Label TextCaleb Purrington was a painter of ornamental decoration, houses, carriages, trade signs, and ships. He worked in partnership with Bartholomew Taber in Fairhaven, MA. Showing a playful imagination, he produced this work in 1854. He is better known for his much larger opus, the great panorama of "A Whaling Voyage 'Round the World," which he produced in collaboration with Benjamin Russell. Exhibition History"Canine and Feline: Dogs and Cats in American Art" (Heritage Plantation, Sandwich, MA, 1988)
"The Cat in American Folk Art," (Museum of Folk Art, NY, 1976)
Loan, National Gallery of Art, 1970
Swain School of Design, April 1962
Exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, before 1962Published References"New Bedford and Old Dartmouth: A Portrait of a Region's Past," #146, p. 177. New Bedford: Old Dartmouth Historical Society, 1976.
"Karolik Sale Catalogue," #232 as "Caught in the Act." Newport, June 17-19, 1964
"Portraits & Genre paintings: 18th and 19th century," #10, New Bedford: Old Dartmouth Historical Society, April 1962.
ProvenanceWilliam Kranzler purchase from "a man on Green St., Fairhaven"; George Considine; Maxim Karolik; sold at Karolik auction, Parke-Bernet, June 1964; Bruce J. Simpson, Adam Weschler Auction, May 1970; ODHS purchase, 1972

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