CATS ON CANVAS

The Cat through time

Artists have been drawing cats for thousands of years, chasing their shapes, moods, and mysteries across paper, wood, and canvas.

In Ancient Egypt, cats were divine. They guarded homes, posed in tomb paintings, and walked beside goddesses. Centuries later, in Europe’s cat-loving, Middle Ages, they tiptoed into the margins of manuscripts and curled under the chairs of saints and sinners.

Leonardo da Vinci adored them. He sketched them in motion and called them “a masterpiece.” In the cozy homes of 17th-century Dutch painters, cats appeared mid-leap, mid-yawn, or mid-trouble. By the 19th century, they became proper muses: Manet painted sleek black cats, Bonnard let them nap in golden light, and Henriette Ronner-Knip gave them velvet cushions.

Then came the dreamers. Matisse cut cats into color with scissors, Paul Klee drew them like music, Chagall let them fly, and Balthus painted them as if they knew something we didn’t. Leonor Fini didn’t just paint cats, she lived with more than twenty at once, often becoming part-cat herself in her portraits. Even Andy Warhol made a whole book of cat drawings. Steinlen, the artist behind Le Chat Noir, turned cats into icons of bohemian Paris.