The novelist and art historian Teju Cole, in the third chapter of his debut novel "Open City", describes a visit to the American Folk Art Museum. The narrator notices and evaluates "Girl in Red Dress with Cat and Dog": "At the landing of the first flight of stairs, I saw an oil portrait of a young girl in a starchy red dress holding a white cat. A dog peeked out from under her chair. The details were saccharine, but they could not obscure the force and beauty of the painting."