A Michael Broad Blog
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 …
It is hoped that a Roman mosaic from the 4th-century of a leopard attacking an antelope, which was discovered in the grounds of Dewlish House in Dorset in 1974, will stay in the country. It is the sort of historical work of art which should not be allowed to go overseas and which should …
You never quite know the formula for becoming an internet, social media sensation perhaps because there is no formula. But, Phil Heckels’s questionable skills as an artist have caught the imagination of the public. With a pinch of salt, he amusingly calls himself an “acclaimed artist” but he is taking the Mickey out of …
Peru’s Ministry of Culture report that they have discovered a feline figure carved into an arid hillside around 2,000 years ago. This is a geoglyph made in the rocky soil of the Nazca Desert in southern Peru. This huge drawing was gently created by scraping away the top layers of rock and gravel to …
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 …
I have been bold enough to say that Barbara Hepworth loved cats. If you’re not completely sure, Barbara Hepworth was an English sculptor. She was celebrated and renowned. She was a Dame of the British Empire and was internationally recognised. She was born in Wakefield and studied at Leeds School of Art and 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 …
