Henriette Ronner-Knip
1821 — 1909 · Brussels
Painted nothing but cats from the 1870s onward. Set the European salon standard for the parlour cat at rest.
Read about Ronner-Knip The Painters · an index
Five painters who made cats a subject worth painting.
A short canon assembled from Brussels, Paris, Tokyo and London — the painters who, between roughly 1860 and 1940, took the cat off the edge of the frame and into the centre of the picture. Each entry below opens into a longer biographical room.
Tsuguharu Foujita
1886 — 1968 · Tokyo · Paris
Carried his cat into self-portraits and laid down a milk-white ground that became his signature. Montparnasse, between the wars.
Read about Foujita
Théophile Steinlen
1859 — 1923 · Lausanne · Paris
Drew the street cats of Montmartre by the thousand. The poster he made for the Chat Noir is a fixture of Belle Époque print.
Read about Steinlen
Louis Wain
1860 — 1939 · London
The cat-illustrator of Edwardian England. Domestic and gentle for decades, then the late patterned series for which he is now equally known.
Read about Louis Wain
Suzanne Valadon
1865 — 1938 · Paris
Returned to the cat as a serious portrait subject across her Montmartre years. Raminou, her studio cat, sat for her more than once.
Read about Valadon In their tradition
A portrait of your cat, in the register of the painters above.
Six painting styles, chosen to honour the canon while keeping the brushwork true to your cat’s particular face. Reviewed by Mercy before it ships.
Begin Your Cat’s Portrait