Cats in Art: Two Cats (Oudry)

From my continuing weekly Sunday series of cats in art.  Having moved on from Stefano Zuffi's marvelous work, The Cat in Art, I am now using some ideas from Caroline Bugler's equally impressive book, The Cat/3500 Years of the Cat in Art.  You really should check out and/or own both of these wonderful works, easily available on Amazon or eBay (and I have no financial interest).

The bride and I had a wonderful vacation in France this fall where we were privileged to see both the Louvre and Orsay Museums.  Of the two, the Orsay was much better--less crowded, could get closer to the paintings, more cats.

This is second of at least 3 posts on the cat art of Jean-Baptiste Oudry.  

Image credit National Gallery of Canada, Two Cats, Jean-Baptiste Oudry, 1725, oil on canvas, 29" x 36", held by the National Museum of Canada, Ottawa, Canada.

And of course the kitty head shot:

From the museum web site:

Oudry has emphasized the large, gleaming eyes of the cats standing over a dead partridge. Both the defiant pose of the cats and the artist's attention to subtle differences in their markings suggest that this is a portrait. The work is contemporaneous with his portrait of "Le Général", Louis XV's cat. Oudry devoted his career to painting animals and was the official artist of the royal hunt.

I don't think I've ever seen a cat as mad as the one on the right.  Or maybe the cat is just intent upon the dead partridge, as painted, but the kitty just seems pissed beyond belief.

Thus far I've done a little investigation but nothing seems to be turning up about the tantalizing tidbit in the museum comment concerning Oudry's painting of the cat of Louis XIV.  Stay tuned!

[Gary note: With my Cats in Arts posts, I encourage you to scope out the art appreciation site Artsy (I have no financial interest in the site, I just like it), where you can explore many aspects of the world of art.  You'll certainly be entertained and enlightened!]

Cats in Art: Head of a Mewing Cat (Oudry)

From my continuing weekly Sunday series of cats in art.  Having moved on from Stefano Zuffi's marvelous work, The Cat in Art, I am now using some ideas from Caroline Bugler's equally impressive book, The Cat/3500 Years of the Cat in Art.  You really should check out and/or own both of these wonderful works, easily available on Amazon or eBay (and I have no financial interest).

The bride and I had a wonderful vacation in France this fall where we were privileged to see both the Louvre and Orsay Museums.  Of the two, the Orsay was much better--less crowded, could get closer to the paintings, more cats.

This is the first of at least two posts on the cat art of Jean-Baptiste Oudry.

Image credit Pinterest, Head of a Cat Mewing, Jean-Baptiste Oudry, early 1700s, black chalk, pastel with white highlights, 6" x 6", held by the Louvre Museum, Paris, France. 

And today no kitty close-up is warranted!

The analysis in the Vitoux and Foucart-Walter book Cats in the Louvre:

Bearing [sic] its little pointed teeth and with his whiskers every which way, the face of this puling cat is little short of terrifying.  It is so true to life that surely it was drawn from nature.  And yet nothing could be further from the truth.  Oudry quite simply copied it from a study showing several animals, including this cat's head [by Pieter Boel, held by "the museum at Alencon"].  

Did you notice the image credit?  I can almost hear you saying, "Pinterest, really??!!"  Again I've encountered one of the vagaries of the Internet: diligent search of the web, to include the Louvre website, uncovered no primary sources for this image.  I could only find sites like Pinterest and art reproduction sites.

Also did you notice the tiny size of the chalk sketch?  Only 6" square, yet all that marvelous kitty detail!

All I can say is that I wouldn't want to have to give flea meds--or any meds--to this particular kitty.  I value my life and limb a tad too much.

[Gary note: With my Cats in Arts posts, I encourage you to scope out the art appreciation site Artsy (I have no financial interest in the site, I just like it), where you can explore many aspects of the world of art.  You'll certainly be entertained and enlightened!]

Cats in Art: Earthly Paradis (de Vos)

From my continuing weekly Sunday series of cats in art.  Having moved on from Stefano Zuffi's marvelous work, The Cat in Art, I am now using some ideas from Caroline Bugler's equally impressive book, The Cat/3500 Years of the Cat in Art.  You really should check out and/or own both of these wonderful works, easily available on Amazon or eBay (and I have no financial interest).

The bride and I had a wonderful vacation in France this fall where we were privileged to see both the Louvre and Orsay Museums.  Of the two, the Orsay was much better--less crowded, could get closer to the paintings, more cats.

Image credit WikiMedia Commons, Earthly Paradise, Paul de Vos (and studio), 1600s, oil on canvas, 7' 2" x 10' 10", a replica of the original held by the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, Italy, held by the Louvre Museum, Paris, France. 

And the kitty close-up:

The analysis in the Vitoux and Foucart-Walter book Cats in the Louvre, as the paired critters are about ready to embark upon the Ark:

It was normal for painters to fill their depictions of Paradise with beasts of all kinds, so as to recall that, in accordance with biblical texts (Genesis), Adam was called upon by the Eternal to name every member of the animal kingdom. 

Very oddly, our [singular] cat has not adopted the placid attitude one might expect from him: with ears flattened and eyes bulging, he seems in a rage and ready to leap at some invisible adversary.  Perhaps he can sense that the end of this Garden of Eden is nigh.

The painting is huuuuuge, as was de Vos' habit, measuring some 7 feet tall and nearly 11 feet wide.  Can you imagine standing right there and seeing it in person? (unfortunately we completely missed it as we hustled of necessity thru the Louvre).

This is obviously a very bad cat.  Perhaps he was annoyed at the presumptuousness of Adam to name him.  Obviously, as I always say, we can never know the real name of any animal; we only know what we call them.

I've done three posts on the cat art of Paul de Dos previously: Still Life With Game and Lobster, Catfight in a Pantry, and A Lion and Three Wolves.

Of course, my fav has to be Catfight in a Pantry, where we see an airborne kitty.  You know you want to click over to see it!


[Gary note: With my Cats in Arts posts, I encourage you to scope out the art appreciation site Artsy (I have no financial interest in the site, I just like it), where you can explore many aspects of the world of art.  You'll certainly be entertained and enlightened!]

Cats in Art: Fishmongers at Their Stalls (Snyders)

From my continuing weekly Sunday series of cats in art.  Having moved on from Stefano Zuffi's marvelous work, The Cat in Art, I am now using some ideas from Caroline Bugler's equally impressive book, The Cat/3500 Years of the Cat in Art.  You really should check out and/or own both of these wonderful works, easily available on Amazon or eBay (and I have no financial interest).

The bride and I just returned from a wonderful vacation in France where we were privileged to see both the Louvre and Orsay Museums.  Of the two, the Orsay was much better--less crowded, could get closer to the paintings, more cats.

Image credit The Athenaeum, Fishmongers at Their Stalls (or more simply, Fish Stall), Frans Snyders, ca 1616, oil on canvas, 6' 10" x 11' 2", held by State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia.

The Hermitage web site tells us that Snyders painted a number of quite similar scenes, that fortunately are held by the museum.  This descriptor actually relates to another painting in the series  but the background facts pertain:

The Hermitage has 14 paintings by the famous Flemish painter of animals, hunting scenes and still lifes, Frans Snyders. Son of the owner of one of the largest restaurants in Antwerp, famous for its abundance of vegetables, fruit, fish and game, Snyders found rich material for his paintings. Snyders created his own individual concept of still life painting, which was monumental, decorative and dynamic. A characteristic example of this is the series of four market stalls commissioned from Snyders by Jacques van Ophem, powerful representative of the administration of Archduke Albert and the Infanta Isabella - the Spanish viceroys in the Southern Netherlands.

The Fishmarket shows a seemingly endless variety of the inhabitants of rivers, seas and lakes, depicted by Snyders with almost biological precision. The human figures give the canvas something of the feel of a genre painting: one is catching eels in a wooden tub, another is cutting a fish into pieces, while in the background the life of a sea port unfolds.

And of course the kitty close-up, of a very poorly behaved feline:

Of course, if I were a cat in 1600s Russia, I'd likely be trying to score some fish too.  All we can see is the poor cat's head and front paws, desperately trying to get some food.

Did you notice the size of this painting?  It's eleven feet wide and six feet tall.  Wow!  Can you imagine standing in the Hermitage Museum, right in front of this canvas, and being able to see the rich tableau of seafood, and to be able to scope out the cat directly instead of via this rather fuzzy enlargement?

Sounds like a road trip!  Actually, a faithful copy of this painting hangs in the Louvre, while the original is at the Hermitage.  Vitoux and Foucart-Walter's book Cats in the Louvre provides that nugget of info.


[Gary note: With my Cats in Arts posts, I encourage you to scope out the art appreciation site Artsy (I have no financial interest in the site, I just like it), where you can explore many aspects of the world of art.  You'll certainly be entertained and enlightened!]