They say you’re either a ‘dog person’ or a
‘cat person.’ I’ve always fallen into the latter category, so I thought I would
do a themed feature for this series of posts, covering a large time span
through art history.
Leonardo da Vinci wrote “The smallest
feline is a masterpiece.” His admiration for the feline form is evident in his Study of Cat Movements and Positions:
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| Leonardo da Vinci Study of Cat Movements and Positions 1517-18 |
Thomas Gainsborough’s and Paul Gauguin’s
cat studies show a similar admiration of the feline form:
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| Thomas Gainsborough 1727-1788 Six Studies of a Cat black and white chalk on brown paper 33.2 x 45.9 cm |
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| Paul Gauguin 1848-1903 Etude des chats |
Cats were a particularly popular accessory
as the cuddly familiars of females in sentimental Victorian paintings, and for
the French Impressionists. The cat featured in Renoir’s painting of Julie Manet
is perhaps the most contented cat in art history. The painting will feature in
part 6 of this series.
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| Pierre Auguste Renoir 1841-1919 Julie Manet 1887 |
One famous ‘cat artist’ I have omitted from
this series is Louis Wain – he was more of a children’s book illustrator than a
fine artist. His story is quite interesting though, and I will be featuring him
in a large series at a later date.
I couldn’t quite work a logical sequence to
the works as they are not all dated, so the works are listed in sequences either
by the dates of the artist, or by the works where dated. Where I have images of the artist, they appear above the relevant artwork or artworks.
This is part 1 of a 9-part series on Cats
in Art:
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| Francesco d’Ubertino Verdi aka Francesco Bacchiacca (1494 Borgo San Lorenzo, Italy - 1557 Florence, Italy) Young Woman Holding a Cat 1525 oil on panel |
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| Hans Baldung (1485 Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany -1545 Strasbourg, France) Self-Portrait |
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| Hans Baldung Grien or Grün Music 1529 oil on panel 83 x 36 cm Alte Pinakothek, Munich |
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| Francesco d'Ubertino Verdi (1494-1557) Woman with a Cat 1540s |
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| Annibale Carracci (1560 Bolgna, Italy - 1609 Rome, Italy) |
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| Annibale Carracci Two Children Teasing a Cat 1590 oil on canvas 66 x 88.9 cm The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City |
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| Giovanni Lanfranco (1582 Parma, Italy - 1647 Rome, Italy) |
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| Giovanni Lanfranco Young Naked Man on a Bed with Cat 1620-30c oil on canvas 113 x 160 cm Private Collection |
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| Judith Jans Leyster (1609 Haarlem, The Netherlands - 1660 Heemstede, The Netherlands) Self-Portrait |
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| Judith Jans Leyster Laughing Children With A Cat 1629 oil on canvas 61 x 52 cm Noortman, Maastricht, The Netherlands |
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| Giuseppe Recco (1634 Naples, Italy -1695 Alicante, Spain) A Cat Stealing a Fish oil on canvas 96.5 x 128.3 cm The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City |
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| David Rijckaert III (1612 Antwerp, Belgium - 1661 Antwerp, Belgium) |
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| David Rijckaert III Peasant Woman with a Cat 1640-42 oil on canvas 35 x 28 cm Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, Russia |
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| Wenceslas Hollar (1609 Prague -1677 London) |
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| Wenceslas Hollar Head of a Cat 1646 etching 17.5 x 12.5 cm |
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| Rembrandt van Rijn (1606 Leiden, Holland - 1669 Holland) Self-Portrait oil on canvas 84.5 x 66 cm National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC |
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| Rembrandt van Rijn The Virgin and the Child with the Cat and Snake 1654 etching on paper 9.5 x 14.5 cm Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Nicolaes Maes (1634 Dordrecht, The Netherlands - 1693 Amsterdam, The Netherlands) Self-Portrait c1685 oil on canvas 63 x 50 cm |
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| Nicolaes Maes Old Woman in Prayer 1656c oil on canvas 134 x 113 xm Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Cornelis de Visscher The Large Cat 1657 etching and engraving 14.3 x 18.4 cm |
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| Paul de Vos (1591 Hulst, The Netherlands - 1678 Antwerp, The Netherlands) etching by Anthony van Dyck |
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| Paul de Vos Cats in a Larder 1663 oil on canvas 116 x 172 cm Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain |
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| Ferdinand Van Kessel (1648 Antwerp, Belgium - 1696 Breda, The Netherlands) Cat's Concert 1670c oil on canvas 40 x 82 cm Private Collection |
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| Ferdinand Van Kessel The Barber Monkey 1670c oil on copper 43.2 x 55.9 cm |
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| Eglon Hendrick van der Neer (1635 Amsterdam, The Netherlands - 1703 Düsseldorf, Germany) Self-Portrait |
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| Eglon Hendrick van der Neer Children with a Cage and a Cat 1680s oil on panel 24 x 19 cm Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, Russia |
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| Alexandre-François Desportes (1661 Champigneulles, France - 1743 Paris, France) Self-Portrait in Hunting Dress oil on canvas 197 x 163 cm Musée du Louvre, Paris |
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| Alexandre-François Desportes A Dog and a Cat Fighting in a Kitchen Interior 1710 oil on canvas Private Collection |
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| Alexandre-Francois Desportes Two Studies of Young Cats 1710c oil on paper 27 x 51 cm Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge University, UK |
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| Alexandre-Francois Desportes Still Life with a Cat 1724 oil on canvas Private Collection |
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| Alexandre-Francois Desportes A Cat Attacking Dead Game 1770 oil on canvas Private Collection |
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| Jean-Baptiste Perronneau (1715 Paris, France - 1784 Amsterdam, The Netherlands) Self-Portrait oil on canvas 54 x 45.5 cm Musée des Beaux-Arts de Tours, France |
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| Jean-Baptiste Perronneau Girl with a Kitten 1745 pastel on paper 59.1 x 49.8 cm The National Gallery, London |
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| Jean-Baptiste Perronneau Magdaleine Pinceloup de la Grange, née de Parseval 1747 |
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| Jean-Baptiste Perronneau Girl with a Cat 1757 pastel on parchment 47 x 37.6 cm Musée du Louvre, Paris |
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| Sigmund Freudenberger (1745 Bern, Switzerland-1801 Bern, Switzerland) Cat Drinking Milk watercolour over graphite 9 x 11.5 cm Private Collection |
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| Giovanni Reder Portrait of the Cat Armellino With a Sonnet by Bertazzi 1750c oil on canvas 76 x 62.5 cm Museo di Roma, Italy |
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| Marguerite Gérard (1761 Grasse, France - 1837 Paris, France) Portrait by François Dumont (1751-1831) miniature on ivory 16 x 12 cm Wallace Collection, London |
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| Marguerite Gérard (1761-1837) Portrait of a Lady with Her Cat oil on canvas32.4 x 24.5 cm Private Collection |
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| Marguerite Gérard Le déjeuner du chat oil on canvas Musée Fragonard, Grasse, France |
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| Joseph Wright of Derby (1734 Derby, England - 1797 Derby, England) Self-Portrait c1780 oil on canvas 61 x 73 cm Yale Centre for British Art, New Haven, CT |
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| Joseph Wright of Derby Two Girls Dressing a Kitten by Candlelight 1768-70 oil on canvas 90.8 x 72.4 cm Private Collection |
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| Gottfried Mind (1768 Bern, Switzerland - 1814 Bern, Switzerland) |
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| Gottfried Mind Cat |
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| Gottfried Mind Cat and Dog |
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| Gottfried Mind Cat Grooming |
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| Gottfried Mind Cat with Three Young watercolour on wove paper 21.5 x 28.5 cm |
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| Gottfried Mind Group of Cats lithograph 22 x 30.5 cm |
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| Gottfried Mind Mother Cat and Kittens |
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| Gottfried Mind Mother Cat and Three Kittens |
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| Gottfried Mind Mother Cat and Three Kittens |
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| Gottfried Mind Mother Cat and Three Kittens |
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| Gottfried Mind Mother Cat and Three Kittens |
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| Gottfried Mind Mother Cat with Three Boys at a Feeding Plate |
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| Gottfried Mind Two White Cats on a Table with Books |
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| Gottfried Mind Mother Cat and Two Kittens |
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| Utagawa Toyokuni I (1769 Edo, Japan-1825 Edo, Japan) Woman Holding a Cat Colour Woodblock Print |