Well, about a dozen readers sent me information about the sale of the world’s largest (and said to be “greatest”) painting of cats, auctioned off this week at well above the estimated price. It is, as Philomena would say, it’s “YOUJE”, was painted by Carl Kahler , and is called “My Wife’s Lovers”. The “lovers,” though, weren’t human: you can guess what they were.
I’ll let The Smithsonian give you the information, from a piece written by Erin Blakemore:
The painting, which Kahler completed in the early 1890s, stands roughly six feet wide and eight-and-a-half feet tall. It features 42 Turkish Angora cats as they pose and play inside a luxurious home, surrounded by precious art and antiques.
Who would commission such an incredible a piece of art? It was none other than Kate Birdsall Johnson, a San Francisco philanthropist and one of history’s greatest cat ladies. Johnson had more than 50 “lovers”—her husband’s ironic nickname for the pets—and lived in luxury at a so-called “cat ranch” in California. Her feline friends were well heeled, to say the least, and had their own full-time staff. Johnson was known to pay thousands of dollars for an individual cat and even bought pet birds to amuse her furry darlings.
When Johnson died, according to legend, she willed a large sum of money to her cats so they would continue to live in luxury. A Sotheby’s release claims that her will set aside $500,000 to guarantee the cats’ perpetual care, but the actual document contains no reference to cats or other animals. She was certainly generous, though: Johnson’s will established a free hospital with some of her riches.
Feline trust fund aside, one thing is clear: Johnson wasn’t the only cat lover allured by Kahler’s painting. A year after it attracted big attention at the Chicago World’s Fair, it was sold at public auction. After it barely survived the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, My Wife’s Lovers became a national sensation in the 1940s, gaining a reputation as “the world’s greatest painting of cats.” On November 3, an anonymous buyer spent nearly a million dollars to snag it. Johnson’s fluffy friends would probably approve of the purchase.
Bored Panda is a reliable source of feline humor, and this week it features “20+ cats who immediately regretted their poor life choices.” (Readers have added over 80 other photos!). The reader who sent the link noted “I like 5, 14 and the look of desperation on 15”, so I’ll put those up first
#5:
#14 (also with a look of desperation):
#15:
Here are three favorites of mine, but all the others are good, so go see them.
From Amber Dekker, apparently in the Netherlands, who labels this photo: “Sanne gooit gewoon de kat knock-out!” (Translation, please?)
*******
Finally, here’s a great cat cartoon:
h/t: Taskin, Cindy, Blue, Grania and all the others.
Well, how else is the cat supposed to perform quality control checks on the bar’s gravitational field?
b&
I’d view it more as research into human capacity for restraint under stress.
… and the human need to improve their restraint under stress, supplied by the cats to the staff.
In other news … 42 cats in one room with valuable pottery. What could possibly go wrong?
I’d guess they are all cheap fakes. Once all the cats had been firmly painted in, and the ceramics sketched, he finished off the vases with expansive paint.
Sanne knocks out the cat with a throw.
Though the Dutch tend to use the term “knock-out” very loosely – I don’t expect the cat was actually badly hurt. Sanne is a Dutch girl’s name.
I think the story is that the human threw a snowball and the cat jumped up to intercept it.
We had the neds (oiks, not-so-little bastards) out on Bonfire Night chucking what I thought at first were snowballs from passing cars. They were eggs. So I started looking for stones for my pockets (small ones to throw, biggerones for my philosophy sock). As well as passing on the registration number to the Police. Brand new car – I hope the parents got woken up at 03:00 to explain things.
Love the styrofoam “peanuts” one.
Yeah the cat is seriously peeved. Imagine trying to get all those out?
you’d have to vaccuum it, and most, if not all, cats would hate that
I suspect just a damp towel would work. Moisture usually kills the static attraction.
Or a b-a-t-h.
(Gosh I’m a bad person…)
cr
Yeah, in my experience cats can’t spell as well as dogs🐾🐾
Well, as long as you don’t remove them by shaking the cat because I can guarantee the cat will not like that!! 🙂
I kid about shaking the cat — no one should shake a cat.
Crikey. Very good of those 42 cats to sit perfectly still like that for the duration of the painting. Presumably he put marks down on the floor and furniture so that everyone knew where they were meant to be, and gave them ten-minute breaks every now and then so they could stretch their legs.
A formidable job for the artist and the poor sitters alike…
‘Places please, everybody!’
My thought exactly.
Bored minds…
😉
Basement Cat makes work for idle paws.
Actually, Basement Cat doesn’t even have that small job. Most cats are perfectly capable of coming up with work for their idle paws.
Actually, the artist spent two years sketching all the cats in multiple poses, separately. The painting was commissioned by the owner of the cats, and the scene is imaginary.
That makes a touch more sense of course, I just prefer the idea that the cats were professional life models.
I do too, and when I first saw the painting, I had the same thought as you. 🙂
Maybe they were stuffed?
Sorry, I’ll get my coat….
cr
Watch it mate! It’s probably a crime to even mention stuffed kitties around here! 🙂
Depends on context. Baihu is full from dinner right now, but he’s still looking to get stuffed on dessert (katsuobushi)….
b&
Yes, don’t speak I,k of the glaring.
I liked #12, though I suspect it was set up.
Whenever I found my cats in the plight of # 14 I wasn’t the least tempted to go get a camera. More like a water canon. However I did enjoy sliding the slider screen door open, then closing it behind me, cat firmly stuck the whole time, on my way to retrieve the damn house-wreckers.
#16 is not funny at all, but horrible.
I had -long time ago- my cat (with the unimaginative name “Tigger”) stuck in one of these horrible windows. She got stuck for a few hours since I was out.
After she was freed, she was paraplegic (complete paralysis of the back parts) due to a lacerated spinal cord.
To my immense sorrow a vet friend of mine advised a lethal injection.
If you love cats: replace those windows, or at least never open them ‘vertically’.
Oh, that’s tragic! Thanks for the info–hope I never live anywhere I have to worry about those.