Osborne’s painting “Cupboard Love” and the English idiom for self-interested love

Cupboard Love, Walter Osborne, 1886.

In English the painting is called Cupboard Love, an idiom denoting self-interested affection. That is to say, the object of love is regarded as a source of benefits, namely as a cupboard stocked with tasty things. According to Osborne's conception, such is precisely the cat's attachment to man, but I do not share this opinion, though I do hope that the boy did, in the end, share a morsel of meat with the cat.

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Osborne’s painting “Cupboard Love” and the English idiom for self-interested love

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