Henri Matise: Famous Artists Cats

Famous Artists Cats: George Meets Matisse

Henri Matisse, like Gustav Klimt, Pierre Bonnard and other famous artists, loved cats. He occasionally drew or painted them, but mostly he enjoyed their soothing company, just as you and I do. We're not all so different, even those of us who are not artistic geniuses.

George With Matisse

But we can go you one better. Our cat, George, also loves Matisse. George was our first cat, and "as everybody knows," cats don't know art from wallpaper. It lacks a strong, apetite-encouraging sent. It doesn't move or dangle strings. Ergo, cats have no interest.

Tell it to George.

We hung a framed Matisse print in over an antique hutch in our dining room. George loved to jump up on the hutch. It was a good place to get off the floor and watch the world's going on. Once in a while, he'd take a meal there.

Soon, though, we noticed him staring directly at the Matisse print. It's an expressionist symphony of softer colors with a vase and a leafy plant playing hide and seek in a window.

George spent a lot of time staring at that print, just like a visitor in a gallery stops to really sink into the art. We came to accept that our cat loved Matisse, just as we do. Then something extraordinary happened.

Some cats have abilities so extraordinary we find them hard to believe. Most me some sort of illusion or feline trickery. (They are good at trickery, after all.) Cats we know have become invisible for long periods before reappearing with a "What's the big deal?" look on their faces. Others go from one place to another in a exercise something like a quantum leap. In other words, they go from here to there without ever being anywhere between. They leap.

Every cat we know reads minds and uses telepathy to communicate, and each is usually disappointed in the results. Fortunately, they love us anyway.

Anyway, we still found it incredible when George suddenly inserted himself in a Matisse still life. One day, there he was, staring back at us as if he owned the colorful space full of fruits and birds flying in the background. And there he also was, sleeping like a lord on our sofa.

Sometimes, with cats, it's best to just shake your head and accept the unexplainable truth.

 George Meets Matisse found its way into Famous Artists Cats, a collection of cats in art for which there is no explanation except that cats just do astonishing things.

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Famous Artist's Cats: Magritte and The Invisible Cat

Invisible Cat From Famous Artists Cats

What artist could better inspire fresh cat art in Deborah Julian's inventive series, Famous Artists' Cats than René Magritte?

After all haven't cats already mastered invisibility and quantum leaping? Born in Belgium in 1898, Magritte went on to paint some of the most surreal psychological mysteries at a time when what we consider modern art was being invented.

In the imaginary worlds Magritte painted, business men with bowler hats drifted rigidly in space. A simple neighborhood setting was haunted at night with ungraspable foreboding. All-seeing eyes appeared.

While art lovers have always found Magritte's paintings unsettling, cats have not. Cats give every impression that they find surreal shenanigans to be the normal order of things among perpetually confused human beings. Many of us assume that cats run away when we approach because they're frightened when, in fact, it's because they just prefer not to get involved.

Invisible Cat by Deborah Julian
Famous Artists Cats

This explains why cats will agree to friendship only after food they like has been introduced. Depending on the cat, a period of indefinite duration follows before you might be allow to play with or even pet the cat. After that, it's a gradual transition to the point where you have a chance to give up a favorite chair because the cat likes to nap in it or even sacrifice a major section of your bed at night.

Which brings us to The Invisible Cat. In Magritte's Invisible World, he painted partially sculpted border on what appears to be a formal balcony. In the background, gray-black clouds threaten above what appears to be a vast, misty sea. Sammy, famous, among other things, for disrupting Degas' Hat Shop, was having none of it. His decision to curl up next to the rock for a moment of meditation was immediate.

Because such acts do not require any time to pass, Sammy quantum leaped from his favorite lounging place to Magritte's canvas, instantly creating The Invisible Cat.


You can find more cat art inspired by great artists in Deborah Julian's Famous Artists' Cats, a series that includes images inspired by Van Gogh, Matisse, Degas and others.

Trending now at Deborah Julian Art:

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Feral Friday

Hi there Mewmew here. Since our other blog has been hacked, we are going to try this to see if Mom can figure it out. Anyway, I am still very feral even though I arrived here as a very small kitten. Usually, if you can get a kitten born to a feral Mom really really early they can be tamed fairly well. But it took me two months before I would let Mom pat me. And I still won't let her pick me up.

I really am my Mom's good friend even though I am not cuddly. I do take good care of her and even come running when she whistles for me.

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Our friend Deb over at Zee and Zoey has been putting posts up about some feral cats in Florida. She has an excellent video on this post so take a look. http://zeezoey.com/blog/the-mainstreaming-of-a-feral-cat-part-two/

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Does your Doggie need some doggie biscuits?

We have been asked by the Hartz to have a giveaway for these biscuits and in return we got some biscuits for us. We think they are really good and we gobbled up a bunch of them. They are called Crunch'nClean and there are three different flavors in each box. They do feature a heartier, crunchier texture than regular biscuits which makes for nice chewing. Also they are supposed to be really good for our teeth.

">Jasmine here looking very anxious to get another one of those biscuits. They really are good. They also have some breath freshening crystals that contain chlorophyll and other ingredients to freshen your dog's breath. They also contain Sodium Hexametaphosphate, which is an ingredient that has been used for many decades and has been proven safe for your dogs. It is also used in human oral care products.

The biscuits come in a 26 ounce box and are a good size for any size dog. The cost in most places is $3.49 per box.

Anyway, to enter this giveaway just leave a comment for us, and we will write down the names of the people that want a free box and we will use that random picker to choose the winner. This giveaway will go until Wed. 8/18/2010.

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Book give away, Buckley's Story

I just read a wonderful book called Buckley’s Story. Buckley is a wonderful Tortie cat that was rescued and ended up at an animal hospital. Well one of the gals that worked there took the cat on as her office cat. And so she writes a book about this terrific cat.

This is not only the story of Buckley, but the author, Ingrid King, goes into what great lessons the cats teach us about life. It is a lesson that I have heard about many times but never connected it to my cats. And that is to live for the present day and not worry about tomorrow etc. Anyway, I really enjoyed the book and it does have a sad ending but it is very well written and I truly enjoyed it.

To let me know if you want to be in the draw for the book, just leave me a comment. One of these many cats will do the drawing on Tues. morning and I will get in touch with the winner.

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Feral By Nature: One more task out of the way

Feral By Nature: One more task out of the way

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The poor Skunk

Here is a funny story about a cat and a skunk. I hadn't been living here in Anderson very long, and didn't know a lot about skunks except that they sprayed a very bad smelling liquid that I sure didn't want to get on me or my dogs or my cats.

One afternoon, I looked out of my kitchen window, and there was a cat cage out in my back yard because I was in the process of trying to catch a bunch of cats that had decided to come live with me. They were really enjoying the great food that they were getting, but I had told them that if they wanted to continue to enjoy the food, they really needed to go to the vets and get fixed and shots. So I would leave the cage out there, and feed them in it, one at a time.

Anyway, at this particular time, I looked out the window, there was a white animal right next to the cage, and a cat on top of the cage looking at the white animal. My cats all had a lot of white on them, soI didn't pay a lot of attention. But I kept looking and finally realized that it was a skunk.

After toatlly hitting my panic button, I decided I had to get the skunk to leave. The cat on top of the cage didn't seem the least bit disturbed. He thought it was just another animal. Oh Well.

Then I went outside and got armed with many missiles to throw at the skunk because I sure didn't want to get close to it. I did not throw anything that would have hurt the skunk. I was throwing bags that would rattle and the dogs toys and balls at it. Of course they all missed but eventually, the skunk got the picture, and very slowly wandered off without spraying anyone. I was amazed. All this took at least two hours and then I watched it for another hour to make sure it had gone far enough.

That night, I thought I had better see if he was outside, because I wanted to let the dogs go out. Sure enough, there he was, right up against my house. So I started again with the missiles, mostly boxes out of my house or anything that might scare him. But this time he didn't move. Just lay there. So I didn't take any chances, and took the dogs way out in the front pasture away from the skunk.

The next morning, I carefully looked for the skunk and didn't see him at all. So took the dogs to the barn and kept very close watch on them, and kept them right with me.

A little later on in the morning, I saw the same cat that had been sitting on top of the cage, looking into one of the boxes that I had thrown at the poor skunk. So I got really brave and walked over and peered into the box and sure enough, there was the skunk. The sad thing is that the skunk had died. I guess the poor thing just needed a quiet place to die. I felt horrible about it all, but really didn't know he was sick. I don't have any idea what was the matter with him or her. But at least he or she got a very nice burial. Poor thing. And it was a white skunk too. Very unusual.

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