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IMPRESSIONISTS
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Edouard Manet was
something of a rebel and a self-professed liberator of artists from
academic constraints. One of his most famous paintings, Le Dejeuner
sur I'Herbe, was based, he claimed, on a composition by
Raphael. Some say that in Manet's original version of this famous work
the 'big cat' became unruly and eventually tried to eat the man wearing
the Bohemian hat, to the right of the painting. The cat had to be
tranquillised and removed from the sitting so that the artist could
finish the painting. The cat's absence did, however, result in the
hitherto partially hidden nude woman becoming prominent in the picture.
To this day she gazes out of the painting with a vaguely perplexed
expression as if contemplating her friend's lucky escape!
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Onå day a man was
walking along a rue in Paris when he happened upon a ginger cat who
looked like a stray. 'Ello puseey', he said in a French accent, 'you
look az eef you are lost'.
The cat brushed itself against his leg and then disappeared through a
half-open door. The man, not wishing the cat to get trapped, followed it
inside, where he stumbled upon three beautiful ballerinas as they sat
waiting for their rehearsal to start. The cat launched itself at the
young ladies in joyful reunion, only slightly shredding their tutus.
'Oh look', they exclaimed, 'Ziss man 'as found our puseey! 'Sank you
very much. 'Ow ever can we repay you?' The story goes that, to show
their gratitude to the man who reunited them with their beloved cat, the
ballerinas agreed to allow him to sit in on rehearsals from time to time
and to sketch what he saw. The man's name was Edgar Degas, and the
paintings that he was then able to produce give us a glimpse of the
movement, suppleness, grace and beauty of the ballet world.
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The artist Cezanne
is famous for his beautiful still life paintings and particularly for
compositions using fruit. But earlier in his career he was apparently
renowned locally for his beautiful paintings of fish and game. It all
changed when he was adopted by a stray cat that simply wandered into his
studio one day. The artist fell in love with the animal and named it 'Rumplestiltzkin'.
Unfortunately, the inquisitive little torn acquired a taste for the
artist's props and would devour them before they could be painted. In an
effort to thwart his pet's destructive habits, Cezanne began replacing
his usual props with citrus and other fruits of which cats are less
fond. But curiosity still drove Rumplestiltzkm to leap onto the
compositions from time to time in the hope of finding something tasty.
This particular painting was to have been titled Still Life with a
Fruit Dish, a Jug and Apples, but was imaginatively re-titled
. Still Life with a Fruit Dish and Apples after the
jug was broken in a kitty attack!
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Claude-Oscar Monet
created elaborate waterlily pond in his splendid garden at Giverny.
Between 1899 and 1900 he painted seventeen views of the pond, maybe
more. One story goes that Monet struggled for hours to get the trees
just right. He couldn't for the life of him work out why he was having
such difficulty with the poplars until he took a closer look. The
odd-shaped canopy, peculiar coloured leaves and irregular shaped trunks
were in fact cats...dozens of cats that had entered the garden to launch
an attack on the fish in the pond! They had all latched on to the trees
with their claws like an invading SAS force! He was rather pleased with
the finished picture and allowed the cats freedom to come and go in his
garden, even providing them with enough cat food to keep them away from
his fish.
Unfortunately, when Monet showed this picture at Durand Ruel's gallery
in 1900 he was told in no uncertain terms that 'The cats must go!' He
systematically painted them out, leaving only the views of the trees,
which the public loved.
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There are many tales
about the great artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and this one has a cat
attached! Between 1907 and 1911 a woman named Gabrielle Renard served as
Renoir's model for a number of paintings dealing with self-adornment.
One school of thought has it that the series came about following a
sitting where Gabrielle was placed admiring a cat. Unfortunately, as we
all know, cats won't always stay still when you want them to. This cat
chose its moment and left the scene on hearing the milkman arrive -
leaving Gabrielle sitting alone with a rose in her hair, another in her
hand and her blouse open - as the artist explained to Mrs Renoir when
she stumbled on the scene. This picture, minus the cat and titled simply
Gabrielle with a Rose, was a huge hit, whilst the painting that
the artist had intended to produce, and which is shown here, remained
neglected at the back of Renoir's cupboard. It seems that Gabrielle left
the Renoir household shortly after the incident — whether or not the
artist's wife had anything to do with her sudden departure is not known.
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Look closely at this
picture by Impressionist artist Mary Cassatt, and what can you see? A
mother and child captured in a moment of tender embrace. But look more
closely at their expressions. Can you see relief? The kind of relief
that follows trauma perhaps? The sort of trauma that a cat can invoke
for instance? Take a look at the other mother in the picture. Behind the
shoulder of the young child is a mother cat gently licking her kitten.
And why does the kitten look so bedraggled and everyone look so
relieved? The kitten had been outside and somehow managed to climb onto
the roof. A passing travelling salesman (a purveyor of fine pet foods)
offered to climb a ladder to get it down but he fell, launching a bucket
of paint into the air and sending it flying all over the yard. The
now-empty bucket came down on the tail of the family's peacefully
sleeping dog, who leapt into the air with a yelp so loud it scared the
kitten who jumped in sheer terror from the rooftop straight into the
well where it almost drowned! Everyone had to help lower the now injured
salesman down on a rope to haul it out. Thankfully the kitten was saved,
and nobody had to buy anything from the salesman in this 'shaggy cat'
story!
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Nobody could have
foretold the events that would unfold in Paris-born Paul Gauguin's life.
This painting is believed to represent the major turning point in his
artistic career. It was Gauguin's habit to allow stray cats to climb
through the window of his tiny attic studio and keep him company while
he worked. One day, the artist had just finished a painting and was at
the sink washing his dirty brushes when he caught sight of a cat
reflected in the water. His gaze fixed upon the reflection, which stared
back at him. Suddenly the image in the water was gone and the artist
turned to see the cat disappearing through the open window, over the
rooftops. In that instant Gauguin saw that the cat encapsulated
everything he wanted to be: free from responsibilities and living
outside the constraints of society. Gripped by this sudden realization
Gauguin gave up his successful career, his marriage, his home...
everything. Sixty-three days later he arrived on Tahiti determined to
live a more primitive existence, which he did until his death in 1893.
This painting remains as a symbol of that transitionary moment, with the
artist representing himself as a cat, which leans to see its reflection
in a crystal blue lagoon, thousands of miles away from that cramped and
squalid studio in Paris....
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This is Vincent van
Gogh's bedroom at Aries circa 1889, it is one of a series of paintings
attempting to capture the differing personalities of the artist and Paul
Gauguin, with whom he was working at the time. Van Gogh purchased two
little kittens as models, one ginger to represent himself, the other
black to represent the dark-haired Gauguin. The kittens were allowed to
play around the room, whilst the artist made his sketches.
On this canvas the ginger cat can be seen on the footboard of the bed
and at the same time looking in through the window, symbolizing the
artist's feelings of alienation and marginalization, whilst the darker
cat is shown in the bed and at the same time hiding under it,
emphasizing Gauguin's feelings of suffocation in the civilized world and
his wish to escape it! The second picture in the series was to have been
Van Gogh's chair and cats, but unfortunately he ran out of paint. There
was nothing for it but to sell the kittens. The extra money they brought
in meant that not only was the artist able to buy some more materials,
he could also afford some sunflowers and a new razor which he thought
might come in handy one day...
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Everyone will be
familiar with Georges Seurat's famous Impressionist painting Sunday
Afternoon on the Island of the Grande Jatte - an island in the River
Seine popular with visitors. Apparently the artist was all set up with
his easel, and was about to paint the leisurely scene spread before him,
when two beautiful ginger cats caught his eye. The sunlight playing on
their dappled coats fascinated Seurat and he attempted to reproduce the
effect in paint. And that's how pointillism was born, or so it said. So
fond of the finished picture was Seurat that he painted another version,
minus cats and in full colour, for public display. This work remained in
the artist's own collection, where he kept it hanging in his private
study and renamed it Sunday Afternoon on the Island of the Grand
Chat.
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Henri de
Toulouse-Lautrec, the celebrated Impressionist painter, is now mainly
remembered for his striking illustrations of French cafe life, but this
little-known painting captures the moment when a cat took an active role
in influencing quite a different art form.
A popular cabaret artiste in late nineteenth-century Paris was Jane
Avril who would sing sad songs about the plight of stray cats. During
her performance she was accompanied by her incredible trained pussy who
would purr and meow along with the songs. Toulouse-Lautrec was
commissioned to paint the routine for a poster in return for free
drinks. Whilst Jane Avril performed, Lautrec sketched away - until the
pop of a champagne cork sent the cat into a frenzy. It dived under
Avril's skirts and dug its claws into her inner thigh sending the
artiste into a frenzied attempt to dislodge it by shaking her leg in the
air. This provided an uncensored glimpse of her undergarments to the
audience who cheered. The band attempted to cover the event with some
fast loud music, whilst Avril shouted to the stage manager to bring the
only thing to which Puss would respond to — a can of cat food. 'Bring
the can.. .the can.. .can!'
These shrieks reached the ears of a visiting journalist just as he had
asked what this wild new dance was. By the next morning the headlines
were full of it. 'Jane Avril Dances The Can Can' accompanied, of course,
by Lautrec's painting.
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It all came about
one hot day in Provence when Pierre Bonnard's cat, whom he
affectionately called 'Nood', saw a bathtub filled with cool water and
decided to climb in. Bonnard, who was searching for his wife in a fit of
depression brought about by lack of inspiration, stumbled upon the
soaking cat. The sight fueled an idea for a painting. 'Today I am going
to begin a canvas which I shall call Nude Bathing', he called
out. Well, while his chief model, Mrs Marthe Bonnard, prepared herself
for the session, Pierre made a hasty sketch before evicting the dripping
pussy in favour of Marthe who features in the better-known Nude
Bathing 1937. Here is the completed Nood Bathing 1937, which
is believed to come from the artist's private collection.
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