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
Cat on a Chair, Ruskin Spear, Oil on Canvas, Date Unknown (Private Collection)
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
Cats, Orovida Camille Pissarro, Oil on Canvas, 1959 (Camden Town Hall)
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)
The Black Cat, John Northcote Nash, Woodcut, 1922
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)
Tabby Cat, Charles Edward Stuart, Oil on Canvas, 1901 (Glasgow Museums Resource Centre)
Young Woman Holding a Black Cat, Gwen John, Oil on Canvas, c. 1920-25 (Tate)
The Uncivilised Cat, Agnes Miller Parker, Tempera On Board, 1930 (The Fleming Collection)
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Just magnificent. Purrrfect I can only apologise 🤩
All of the paintings are lovely, especially loved the curious cat! I noted that the newspaper headline could have applied to politics now!