Lot 337: HALE, KATHLEEN.

Bliss

Condition Note: 275 by 370mm., oil on board, captioned on the verso in pencil, framed

A Slender Reputation, p.192.

This oil painting depicting a tabby cat with five suckling kittens is similar in composition to the watercolour reproduced as plate 12 in Kathleen Hale's autobiography, A Slender Reputation. The mother cat was the original model for Grace. "... I acquired two female cats, a tabby called Grace and a tortoise-shell called Pansy. One day Grace and Pansy gave birth to six kittens each, at the same time, in Peregrine's bath." There was one marmalade kitten in the two litters and this Kathleen Hale kept, eventually naming it Orlando. In the stories Kathleen Hale gave Orlando and Grace three kittens, Tinkle, Blanche and Pansy.