Cats and art: iconography of a household deity (part five)

In the eighteenth century the cat peeps in a wide variety of works and styles, going from taverns to drawing rooms, from boudoir to the charming sorceresses cavern. Around eighteenth and nineteenth century, Francisco Goya (1746-1828) depicts several times cats behind a child yet but already cruel Don Manuel Osorio de Zuniga [image 1], three cats follow the scene, two cats fight each other in Cat fight [image 2]… J.M. William Turner will temper the image of cat in the sun [image 3], bringing it back to its primordial sacredness.

In Pre-Raphaelites’ paintings we find it alongside children as in the works Early days [image 4] Puss in Boots [image 5] or in excruciating A flood by Sir John Everett Millais (1829-1896), or we see him peek at the events of his masters in The Awakening Coscience [image 6] by William Holman Hunt (1827-1910). Evelyn de Morgan (1855-1919) makes it become familiar with a charming enchantress in The Love Potion [image 7] and also those who only inspires to Brotherhood style, as John Dickson Batten in Sleeping Beauty [image 8] also portrays at least two of them. John William Godward closes Pre-Raphaelite phase with the work Ozio [image 9]. In La toilette del mattino by Telemaco Signorini (1835-1901) a cat observes a group of women intent on making themselves beautiful [image 10]. In Paul Gauguin’s works (1848-1907) it is detached and sly presence [images 11 and 12] and also Vincent van Gogh does not hesitate to portray it [image 13] as well as Toulouse Lautrec [image 14].

Famous are Steinlen cats, frequent visitor to the artistic and literary café Le chat noir of which he was creator of the famous sign [image 15]. As an example of seductiveness we see it next to naked women portraits in Women with cats playing Felix Vallotton (1865-1925). Pierre Bonnard place it in a large number of his works. The Customs Officer Rousseau connects the simplicity in portraying the mystery of Pierre Loti with one of his “Moumottes – chattes”. Famous is Eduard Manet‘s Olympia (1865), but also the soft Portrait of Mademoiselle Julie Manet with cat [image 16] by Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

Foujita, Picabia, Jacques Nam, Dali and Chagall have been seduced by cats. Picasso could not avoid to capture one intent to enjoy a bird. Léonor Fini’s love for cats is such that her cats seem to have escaped from some “artificial paradise” [image 17]. Tip-legged we arrive today at Dino Buzzati, who as a painter dedicated to the cat two paintings, Ms. cat and Siamese cat on the mat, but there are many contemporary painters inspired by the purr of our little household god. We will find out soon.

To be continued…