What affects us affects cats
Louis William Wain (1860-1939) was a talented artist who is famous for his anthropomorphic cats which were regularly clothed and which were often found on greeting cards and in satirical illustrations. He was a prolific artist whose work was not confined to wide-eyed humanized cats and kittens because he also drew country scenes and …
Although Wikipedia makes no mention whatsoever of Marc Chagall’s love of cats, they play a major part in many of his paintings. They are shown as companions and symbolic of women and domesticity according to one specialist. It seems that Chagall’s love of cats is undeniable. And there is a connection between cats and …
Cats have been used extensively in advertising. A specific poster got me onto the subject. It is not strictly advertising in the sense that we know it but using a fierce black cat to promote the United States Tank Corps in 1917. The military was recruiting to fight in the First World War. The …
Today is a good day to ask whether Vincent van Gogh had a cat because on this day in 1890, Vincent van Gogh shot himself once in the chest. He was aged 37 and it took him two days to die in the company of his beloved brother Theo. Despite being a superb artist, …
From time to time I like to write about cats in paintings. This is one by Lucian Freud which he completed between 1948 and 1949. The painting shows Kitty Garman (1926-2011) holding a cat. Freud was married to Kitty between 1948 and 1952. Freud therefore painted his wife who was the eldest daughter of …
This is a photograph of Grayson Perry’s sculpture of a cat which he has uploaded to Twitter hours ago. I have no idea what it signifies if anything. It is grand and important. There appears to be a very large Asian influence. It is easy to see a Thai temple cat influence and the …
The all-white cat gazing out of the balcony doors to the exterior, in David Hockney’s painting Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy, is sitting on Mr Clark’s lap in a peculiar and uncomfortable way. The cat is meant to be the Percy referred to in the painting’s title but he is not. She is …
This is a little bit of cat trivia. It is not going to change the world but it is quite interesting nonetheless to people who like cats. Édouard Manet, a French modernist painter of the 19th century, was ‘a pivotal figure in the world of art in the transition from Realism to Impressionism’. Personally, …
