On View
Not on viewObject number1965/6.6
Ruth with Cat
Maker
Paul Lewis Clemens
(American, 1911-1992)
Date1942
Mediumoil on panel
Dimensionsframed: 25 1/4 × 21 1/4 × 2 1/2 in. (64.1 × 54 × 6.4 cm)
image (sight): 19 5/8 × 15 1/2 in. (49.8 × 39.4 cm)
image (sight): 19 5/8 × 15 1/2 in. (49.8 × 39.4 cm)
Credit LineGift of the Upjohn Company
Exhibition History"American Realism: Visions of America 1900-1950," Muskegon Museum of Art (May 11 - August 27, 2023); Flint Institute of Arts (September 9 - December 30, 2023); KIA (January 21 - April 14, 2024).Label TextThis was one of the many non-commissioned paintings purchased by The Upjohn Company during the 1940s to illustrate various health messages and developments in the field of medicine in a series of advertisements titled Your Doctor Speaks. These ads appeared in such popular publications as Saturday Evening Post, TIME, and Life magazines. The title for this particular campaign was Why Fear the Storms of the Forties. The message is about menopause, but the title would have caught people’s attention with the closing of World War II in 1945—the same year this advertisement was published.
Paul Lewis Clemens did not create this painting with the intention of it becoming an advertisement. Ruth with Cat is a standard of portrait painters, featuring a finely coiffed and attired woman holding a black cat. The image may not only allude to her status in society but also to the fashions of the era. ["American Realism" Exhibition Label, 2023]
