Cats on Canvas: A Very Feline Affair

“What greater gift than the love of a cat.”

Opussyquinusque, Bloomsbury Group artist Duncan Grant, Oil on board, c. 1932 (Charleston)

Breakfast, Alberto Morrocco, Oil on Canvas, early 1950s (Gracefield Arts Centre)

White Cats, C. Brooke, Oil on Canvas, 1953 (Derbyshire & Derby School Library Service)

Dining Room, Marie-Louise Roosevelt Pierrepont, Oil on Canvas, 1958 (Thoresby Courtyard)

Sunday Afternoon, Edward Thompson Davis, Oil on Canvas, 1853 (Wolverhampton Art Gallery)

A Kitchen Full of Cats, Tirzah Garwood, 1932

There was another story in the paper a week or so since. A gentleman had a favourite cat whom he taught to sit at the dinner table where it behaved very well. He was in the habit of putting any scraps he left onto the cat’s plate. One day puss did not take his place punctually, but presently appeared with two mice, one of which it placed on his master’s plate, the other on it’s own.

Beatrix Potter’s Journal

Beatrix Potter: The Tale of A Lady in the Lakes

Lady with Cat, John Arthur Malcolm Aldridge, Oil on Canvas (Fry Art Gallery)

The Artist’s Studio, Charles Spencelayh, Oil on Canvas, 1953 (Private Collection)

Sleeping Cat, William Menzies Coldstream, Oil on Canvas, 1938 (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford)

A Studio in Montparnasse, CRW Nevinson, Oil on Canvas, exhibited 1926 (Tate)

'Cholmondesbury' ('Cheesby') the Cat, Cyril Norman Hinshelwood, Oil on Board, 1930s (Trinity College, University of Oxford)

The Rum Tum Tugger is a Curious Cat:

If you offer him pheasant he would rather have grouse.

If you put him in a house he would much prefer a flat,

If you put him in a flat then he’d rather have a house.

If you set him on a mouse then he only wants a rat,

If you set him on a rat then he’d rather chase a mouse.

Yes the Rum Tum Tugger is a Curious Cat –

And there isn’t any call for me to shout it:

For he will do

As he do do

And there’s no doing anything about it!

T.S. Eliot, Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats

T.S. Eliot: Introduction to The Waste Land

Attic Interior with Cat and Mouse, Sarah Churchill (1914-1982), Oil on Canvas, c. 1925 (National Trust, Chartwell)

Photograph of artist Eric Ravilious with a cat (ESBHRO/The Keep)

Eric Ravilious: About A Boy

Blinking in the Sun, Ralph Hedley, Oil on Canvas, 1881 (Laing Art Gallery)

Study of a Cat for ‘Teasing’, Albert Ranney Chewett, Oil on Board (Bushey Museum)

It is a very inconvenient habit of kittens (Alice had once made the remark) that whatever you say to them, they always purr.

Lewis Carroll, Through The Looking-Glass

The Curious Cat, Ruskin Spear, Oil and Newspaper on Board (The Ingram Collection)

Bloomsbury Group artist Duncan Grant with his daughter Angelica Bell (right), her cousin Judith Stephen, and a kitten, in the garden at Charleston, 1922-24 (Tate Images)

Duncan Grant: Life Before Bloomsbury

Young Woman Holding a Black Cat, Gwen John, Oil on Canvas, c. 1920-25 (Tate)

Gwen John: A Solitary Life

Edith Ailsa Craig, Clare Atwood, Oil on Canvas, 1943 (National Trust, Smallhythe Place)

What greater gift than the love of a cat.

Charles Dickens

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