The Cat at Night – Dahlov Ipcar
The Cat at Night by Dahlov Ipcar / ISBN 9781958394229 / 56-page hardback with jacket, 8.9 x 11.6 inches, reprinted in 2023 by Tilbury House Publishers
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The golden jubilee edition of a children’s classic first published in 1969.
Join the farmer’s cat on his fascinating nighttime journey through fields, farms, forests, and even the city to see what only he can see after the sunsets.
Legendary artist Dahlov Ipcar mesmerizingly alternates between dark night scenes and vivid color to deliver a beautifully illustrated children’s classic. Each scene is shown first as a human would see it at night in blacks and whites, and then as a cat sees it in with vivid color and fine detail.
This commemorative edition features new back matter about Dahlov’s children’s books from her biographer, poet and art critic Carl Little.
“This is an under-appreciated classic. It follows a cat on his nightly journey through a farm and the surrounding area, all the while comparing what humans see to what a cat sees. Artwork is always important to me―I grew up wanting to be a children’s book illustrator―and this has some of the boldest pictures of any picture book. The drawings, like Matisse cutouts, show what a human sees (black silhouettes against gunmetal blue skies) and then what a cat sees (pinks and greens and yellows). Kids feel close to animals―there’s a natural kinship―so seeing the world through a cat’s eyes has a certain primal appeal.”― Dave Eggers
DAHLOV IPCAR (1917-2017) was an American painter, illustrator, and artist known for colorful paintings featuring animals in farm settings or the wild. In 1945 she illustrated The Little Fisherman, her first children’s book, a classic Golden Book written by noted children’s author Margaret Wise Brown. Ipcar went on to write and illustrate thirty children’s books of her own. She also wrote four fantasy novels for a slightly older audience, as well as a volume of short stories for adults. Her art is significant in the social realism movement. In 1972 Dahlov and her husband together received the Maine Governor’s Award for “significant contributions to Maine in the broad field of the arts and humanities.” She also received three honorary degrees from The University of Maine, Colby, and Bates colleges. In 1998 The University of Minnesota honored Dahlov with The Kerlan Award for Children’s literature. In 2012 the Farnsworth Museum gave Dahlov the Maine In America Award, an honor given to an individual or group who has made an outstanding contribution to Maine and its role in American Art. Ipcar’s works are now in the permanent collections of museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Brooklyn Museum in New York and recent exhibitions have been displayed in Maine and across the US.
