Fish Bowls In Art

George Dunlop Leslie - The Goldfish Seller

The fishbowl is a common symbol of surveillance, as is a glass house. For house cats, the fish bowl is a miniature version of the pond or lake — domestic version.

Blanchie and the Goldfish from the book Clever Cats a Chimney Corner Series unknown author and illustrator, published by Peter G. Thomson, Cincinatti, Ohio, 1885
Ohara Koson Cat and Bowl of Goldfish 1933
January 1927 Pussy turns over a new leaf by Oliver Herford, Ladies Home Journal
possibly by Jeanne Hebbelynck
possibly by Jeanne Hebbelynck
TOTOCHE AND THE UNHAPPY FISH
TOTOCHE AND THE UNHAPPY FISH
Superguppie krijgt kleintjes 2004
Woman’s World Magazine June 1914 cover art
哲学してみる (はじめての哲学) Let’s Try Philosophy (Beginners’ Philosophy Series)
Mother Goose book, published in 1915 with illustrations by Frederick Richardson How many days has my baby to play goldfish bowl
Ethel Larcombe  (1876-1940) Peaseblossom Fairies for the Rose Fyleman poem A Fairy Went A-Marketing fish bowl
Ethel Larcombe (1876-1940) Peaseblossom Fairies for the Rose Fyleman poem A Fairy Went A-Marketing
Harrison Cady, The Bug Artist, 1917
Harrison Cady, The Bug Artist, 1917
Henri Matisse Goldfish Cat
Henri Matisse Goldfish Cat
Henri Matisse Cat and Redfish
Henri Matisse Cat and Redfish
Jessie Willcox Smith (September 6, 1863 – May 3, 1935)
The Passing Show magazine cover art by Gilbert Wilkinson May 1934
Anne Anderson and Alan Wright husband and wife illustrators, from The Cuddly Kitty and the Busy Bunny by Clara G Dennis 1927
Dutch poster for Philips TV, 1951
Shukan Shincho cover by Rokuro Taniuchi 1979
Illustration by Carlo Bisi, 1932
French fashion illustrations c.1920s George Barbier
John White Alexander (American, 1856-1915) An Idle Moment, 1885
Santiago Rusiñol (Spanish painter) Blue Courtyard – Arenys de Munt, 1913

Brigid Lucy tries to be good, but it doesn’t always work. This could be due to the invisible imp hiding in her hair. When Biddy’s pet slug dies in tragic circumstances, Dad promises to buy her a new pet. But Dad is allergic to almost every pet in the shop! Things get even worse when the invisible imp in Biddy’s hair decides to get involved. She can’t help but encourage Biddy into trouble.

Erte 1977 fishbowl
Erte 1977 fishbowl
Amy Millicent Sowerby (1878-1967)

When twelve-year-old Zinnia Manning’s older brother Gabriel is diagnosed with a mental illness, the family’s world is turned upside down. Mom and Dad want Zinny, her sixteen-year-old sister, Scarlett, and her eight-year-old brother, Aiden, to keep Gabriel’s condition “private”—and to Zinny that sounds the same as “secret.” Which means she can’t talk about it to her two best friends, who don’t understand why Zinny keeps pushing them away, turning everything into a joke.

It also means she can’t talk about it during Lunch Club, a group run by the school guidance counselor. How did Zinny get stuck in this weird club, anyway? She certainly doesn’t have anything in common with these kids—and even if she did, she’d never betray her family’s secret.

The only good thing about school is science class, where cool teacher Ms. Molina has them doing experiments on crayfish. And when Zinny has the chance to attend a dream marine biology camp for the summer, she doesn’t know what to do. How can Zinny move forward when Gabriel—and, really, her whole family—still needs her help?

Cat and Bowl of Goldfish, 1933 by Ohara Koson (Shoson) (1877 – 1945)
Marguerite Davis, 1936
Le Monde A Envers, (Pomme d’Api), 1942 goldfish
Divito, Patoruzú If the wife keeps throwing the husband's whiskey into the fish bowl, I don't know how I'm going to normalize my life
Divito, Patoruzú If the wife keeps throwing the husband’s whiskey into the fish bowl, I don’t know how I’m going to normalize my life
Cat and Goldfish from the series One Hundred Tales. Utagawa Kuniyoshi. 1839
From ‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentice’ 1966 Written by Elizabeth Rose Illustrated by Gerald Rose ( b. 1935) fish bowl
Jeanne Mammen 1925 Catching Goldfish

Melody is not like most people. She cannot walk or talk, but she has a photographic memory; she can remember every detail of everything she has ever experienced. She is smarter than most of the adults who try to diagnose her and smarter than her classmates in her integrated classroom – the very same classmates who dismiss her as mentally challenged because she cannot tell them otherwise. But Melody refuses to be defined by cerebral palsy. And she’s determined to let everyone know it – somehow.

Friday Fishing Day by Théophile A. Steinlen (1859-1923)
Saul Steinberg

Header painting: George Dunlop Leslie – The Goldfish Seller

CONTEMPORARY FICTION SET IN AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND (2023)

On paper, things look fine. Sam Dennon recently inherited significant wealth from his uncle. As a respected architect, Sam spends his days thinking about the family needs and rich lives of his clients. But privately? Even his enduring love of amateur astronomy is on the wane. Sam has built a sustainable-architecture display home for himself but hasn’t yet moved into it, preferring to sleep in his cocoon of a campervan. Although they never announced it publicly, Sam’s wife and business partner ended their marriage years ago due to lack of intimacy, leaving Sam with the sense he is irreparably broken.

Now his beloved uncle has died. An intensifying fear manifests as health anxiety, with night terrors from a half-remembered early childhood event. To assuage the loneliness, Sam embarks on a Personal Happiness Project:

1. Get a pet dog

2. Find a friend. Just one. Not too intense.

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