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The Cats History of Western Art
Thirty-two cat paintings--based on masterpieces by Michelangelo, Whistler, Sargent, Van Gogh, and many others--take a humorous look at the history of art. By the author of A Victorian Cat's Journal.
62 pages, Hardcover
First published March 7, 1994
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 12, 2018
Whenever I look at work by Susan Herbert I wonder 'How does she do it?' She is capable of masterfully reproducing some of the world's great art and substituting cats for the humans that were originally portrayed. And in 'The Cats History of Western Art' she has once again created a masterpiece.
Professor Genevieve McCahen provides an erudite preface and accompanying notes to each painting and in the former she sets the scene by commenting, 'Art historians have been universally puzzled by the recent discovery that many painters, sculptors, watercolourists, printmakers - throughout the ages - have used cats as models in the preliminary sketches they made for some of their greatest and most beloved masterpieces.' She goes on to speculate that most artists must have been fond of cats and adds 'the very expressionless of cats presents the artist with a specific and useful problem: how to make a point about an individual without recourse to such human facial arrangements as smiles, scowls, frowns or pouts'. Well, the pages that follow this preface show that Susan Herbert is more than capable of presenting these cat-works as a history of art, feline facial expressions included!
She begins with the earliest example of an artist using a sublime looking cat as a model in a papyrus sketch for Tutankhamun's coffin and the suggestion is that, with her last purr, it was this cat who placed the famous curse upon the tomb! Moving on chronologically, a first century BC Roman Fresco depicts Venus chastising Cupid is followed by a Byzantine Age mosaic of Empress Theodora who it was thought 'unlikely that [she] would have posed for a mosaic' and, therefore, it is reasonable to speculate that the artist used a feline stand-in!
A magnificent Leonardo da Vinci portrait suggests that he used cats as models and 'his scientific interest led him to experiment with them further' in order to achieve his 'luminous depth and soft fluid darkness'. Indeed, his method was: 'Before the paint had dried, he would hold a cat up to the canvas and, while stroking it, would "finish" the surface with its gently twitching tail.' No wonder Leonardo was regarded as a genius!
The Flemish Renaissance is represented by Pieter Bruegel the Elder and if one wonders about that human facial comment in the preface, forget it for here more than 15 cats show a variety of facial expressions as they frolic at a typical Bruegel fair. Rubens, Van Dyck and Goya all have their own style of regal looking cats while Hogarth's felines offer, as the artist nearly always did, a sharply satirical social commentary with a sense of unbridled licentiousness.
As for William Blake, never mind 'Tyger Tyger burning bright', it could have been 'Cat! cat! burning bright' as Susan Herbert portrays a fearsome looking white cat ... but there again Blake would definitely have found the rhythm unsatisfactory so he considered kitty - no, leopard - no and settled on Tyger and it was framed with fearful symmetry!
Vincent Van Gogh's cat admirably reflects the painter's melancholy while Rousseau could have used a mirror for his self-portrait so why has he resorted to a cat? The answer is simple, 'This painting is not a study. Rousseau wanted a picture of his favourite cat, but the cat refused to stand still. So Rousseau set up a mirror, donned this silly costume, and painted his self-portrait as a study for this portrait of his cat.' Get it? - well just about but whatever the result is brilliant.
Perhaps my favourite in this particular collection is Seurat's Bathers at Asnières and the story that is offered with it. Because cats do not like to spend too much time in water, especially the time required by Seurat's painstaking pointillist technique, the artist had 'to throw several pounds of sardines into the river' to achieve his effect! And just to complete the scene in cat-like fashion the dog in the foreground of the original is replaced by a mouse, which, in order to prevent it escaping, the adjacent lazing cat is lying on the mouse's tail.
This volume admirably complements the others in Susan Herbert's series and is, like those others, a book to go back to now and again to enjoy and spot all the little nuances that she has slipped in to the feline versions.
Professor Genevieve McCahen provides an erudite preface and accompanying notes to each painting and in the former she sets the scene by commenting, 'Art historians have been universally puzzled by the recent discovery that many painters, sculptors, watercolourists, printmakers - throughout the ages - have used cats as models in the preliminary sketches they made for some of their greatest and most beloved masterpieces.' She goes on to speculate that most artists must have been fond of cats and adds 'the very expressionless of cats presents the artist with a specific and useful problem: how to make a point about an individual without recourse to such human facial arrangements as smiles, scowls, frowns or pouts'. Well, the pages that follow this preface show that Susan Herbert is more than capable of presenting these cat-works as a history of art, feline facial expressions included!
She begins with the earliest example of an artist using a sublime looking cat as a model in a papyrus sketch for Tutankhamun's coffin and the suggestion is that, with her last purr, it was this cat who placed the famous curse upon the tomb! Moving on chronologically, a first century BC Roman Fresco depicts Venus chastising Cupid is followed by a Byzantine Age mosaic of Empress Theodora who it was thought 'unlikely that [she] would have posed for a mosaic' and, therefore, it is reasonable to speculate that the artist used a feline stand-in!
A magnificent Leonardo da Vinci portrait suggests that he used cats as models and 'his scientific interest led him to experiment with them further' in order to achieve his 'luminous depth and soft fluid darkness'. Indeed, his method was: 'Before the paint had dried, he would hold a cat up to the canvas and, while stroking it, would "finish" the surface with its gently twitching tail.' No wonder Leonardo was regarded as a genius!
The Flemish Renaissance is represented by Pieter Bruegel the Elder and if one wonders about that human facial comment in the preface, forget it for here more than 15 cats show a variety of facial expressions as they frolic at a typical Bruegel fair. Rubens, Van Dyck and Goya all have their own style of regal looking cats while Hogarth's felines offer, as the artist nearly always did, a sharply satirical social commentary with a sense of unbridled licentiousness.
As for William Blake, never mind 'Tyger Tyger burning bright', it could have been 'Cat! cat! burning bright' as Susan Herbert portrays a fearsome looking white cat ... but there again Blake would definitely have found the rhythm unsatisfactory so he considered kitty - no, leopard - no and settled on Tyger and it was framed with fearful symmetry!
Vincent Van Gogh's cat admirably reflects the painter's melancholy while Rousseau could have used a mirror for his self-portrait so why has he resorted to a cat? The answer is simple, 'This painting is not a study. Rousseau wanted a picture of his favourite cat, but the cat refused to stand still. So Rousseau set up a mirror, donned this silly costume, and painted his self-portrait as a study for this portrait of his cat.' Get it? - well just about but whatever the result is brilliant.
Perhaps my favourite in this particular collection is Seurat's Bathers at Asnières and the story that is offered with it. Because cats do not like to spend too much time in water, especially the time required by Seurat's painstaking pointillist technique, the artist had 'to throw several pounds of sardines into the river' to achieve his effect! And just to complete the scene in cat-like fashion the dog in the foreground of the original is replaced by a mouse, which, in order to prevent it escaping, the adjacent lazing cat is lying on the mouse's tail.
This volume admirably complements the others in Susan Herbert's series and is, like those others, a book to go back to now and again to enjoy and spot all the little nuances that she has slipped in to the feline versions.
September 29, 2021
Utterly charming. Herbert’s cleverness is veiled only by her whimsy, and as an art ignoramus, I only understood a fraction of the quips. A great gift for a cat lover or an art lover.
December 9, 2019
Interesting, impressive. A little bit short of images (only 31 colour illustrations).
April 4, 2009
This book takes a humorous look at the history of art with cats posed in a variety of well-known masterpieces. At first I thought it was pretty silly, but have to admit it began to grow on me, especially when I got to Whistler’s Mother—I swear that cat really looks like the old lady. I also enjoyed the melancholy displayed by the cat in Van Gogh’s self-portrait.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews