Hey, Diddle, Diddle, from the series “Nursery Rhymes”

In this etching Paula Figueiroa Rego illustrates a popular nursery rhyme: Hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle, The cow jumped over the moon. The little dog laughed to see such a sport, And the dish ran away with the spoon. The central figure of the cat is rendered as mischievous, silhouetted against a night sky and baring its fangs. The cat's fiddling is inciting the figures to dance and the cow to attempt a seemingly impossible feat. Rego takes the nonsense verse of this familiar narrative and makes it into a strange and disturbing illustration.