Friday 26 August 2016

Cats in Art - part 1

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:

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:


Thomas Gainsborough 1727-1788
Six Studies of a Cat
black and white chalk on brown paper 33.2 x 45.9 cm

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.

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:

Francesco d’Ubertino Verdi aka Francesco Bacchiacca
(1494 Borgo San Lorenzo, Italy - 1557 Florence, Italy)
Young Woman Holding a Cat 1525
oil on panel

Hans Baldung
(1485 Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany -1545 Strasbourg, France)
Self-Portrait

Hans Baldung 
Grien or Grün Music 1529
oil on panel 83 x 36 cm
Alte Pinakothek, Munich

Francesco d'Ubertino Verdi (1494-1557)
Woman with a Cat 1540s

Annibale Carracci
(1560 Bolgna, Italy - 1609 Rome, Italy)

Annibale Carracci
Two Children Teasing a Cat 1590
oil on canvas 66 x 88.9 cm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City

Giovanni Lanfranco
(1582 Parma, Italy - 1647 Rome, Italy)


Giovanni Lanfranco
Young Naked Man on a Bed with Cat 1620-30c
oil on canvas 113 x 160 cm
Private Collection

Judith Jans Leyster
(1609 Haarlem, The Netherlands - 1660 Heemstede, The Netherlands)
Self-Portrait


Judith Jans Leyster
Laughing Children With A Cat 1629
oil on canvas 61 x 52 cm
Noortman, Maastricht, The Netherlands

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

David Rijckaert III
(1612 Antwerp, Belgium - 1661 Antwerp, Belgium)

David Rijckaert III
Peasant Woman with a Cat 1640-42
oil on canvas 35 x 28 cm
Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, Russia

Wenceslas Hollar
(1609 Prague -1677 London)

Wenceslas Hollar
Head of a Cat 1646
etching 17.5 x 12.5 cm

Rembrandt van Rijn
(1606 Leiden, Holland - 1669 Holland)
Self-Portrait oil on canvas 84.5 x 66 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

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

Nicolaes Maes
(1634 Dordrecht, The Netherlands - 1693 Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
Self-Portrait c1685 oil on canvas 63 x 50 cm

Nicolaes Maes
Old Woman in Prayer 1656c
oil on canvas 134 x 113 xm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam


Cornelis de Visscher
The Large Cat 1657
etching and engraving 14.3 x 18.4 cm

Paul de Vos
(1591 Hulst, The Netherlands - 1678 Antwerp, The Netherlands)
etching by Anthony van Dyck

Paul de Vos 
Cats in a Larder 1663
oil on canvas 116 x 172 cm
Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain

Ferdinand Van Kessel
(1648 Antwerp, Belgium - 1696 Breda, The Netherlands)
Cat's Concert 1670c
oil on canvas 40 x 82 cm Private Collection

Ferdinand Van Kessel
The Barber Monkey 1670c
oil on copper 43.2 x 55.9 cm

Eglon Hendrick van der Neer
(1635 Amsterdam, The Netherlands - 1703 Düsseldorf, Germany)
Self-Portrait

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

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

Alexandre-François Desportes
A Dog and a Cat Fighting in a Kitchen Interior 1710
oil on canvas
Private Collection

Alexandre-Francois Desportes
Two Studies of Young Cats 1710c
oil on paper 27 x 51 cm
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge University, UK

Alexandre-Francois Desportes
Still Life with a Cat 1724
oil on canvas
Private Collection

Alexandre-Francois Desportes
A Cat Attacking Dead Game 1770
oil on canvas
Private Collection

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

Jean-Baptiste Perronneau
Girl with a Kitten 1745
pastel on paper 59.1 x 49.8 cm
The National Gallery, London

Jean-Baptiste Perronneau
Magdaleine Pinceloup de la Grange, née de Parseval 1747


Jean-Baptiste Perronneau
Girl with a Cat 1757
pastel on parchment 47 x 37.6 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris

Sigmund Freudenberger
(1745 Bern, Switzerland-1801 Bern, Switzerland)
Cat Drinking Milk
watercolour over graphite 9 x 11.5 cm
Private Collection

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

Marguerite Gérard
(1761 Grasse, France - 1837 Paris, France)
Portrait by François Dumont (1751-1831)
miniature on ivory 16 x 12 cm
Wallace Collection, London

Marguerite Gérard (1761-1837)
Portrait of a Lady with Her Cat
oil on canvas32.4 x 24.5 cm
Private Collection

Marguerite Gérard
Le déjeuner du chat
oil on canvas
Musée Fragonard, Grasse, France

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

Joseph Wright of Derby
Two Girls Dressing a Kitten by Candlelight 1768-70
oil on canvas 90.8 x 72.4 cm
Private Collection

Gottfried Mind
(1768 Bern, Switzerland - 1814 Bern, Switzerland)


Gottfried Mind
Cat


Gottfried Mind
Cat and Dog

Gottfried Mind
Cat Grooming

Gottfried Mind
Cat with Three Young
watercolour on wove paper 21.5 x 28.5 cm

Gottfried Mind
Group of Cats
lithograph 22 x 30.5 cm

Gottfried Mind
Mother Cat and Kittens

Gottfried Mind
Mother Cat and Three Kittens

Gottfried Mind 
Mother Cat and Three Kittens

Gottfried Mind 
Mother Cat and Three Kittens

Gottfried Mind 
Mother Cat and Three Kittens

Gottfried Mind
Mother Cat with Three Boys at a Feeding Plate

Gottfried Mind
Two White Cats on a Table with Books

Gottfried Mind
Mother Cat and Two Kittens

Utagawa Toyokuni I
(1769 Edo, Japan-1825 Edo, Japan)
Woman Holding a Cat
Colour Woodblock Print


No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.