Terrible images of disgustingly sweet kittens wearing big pink ribbons are easy to find--I’m thinking Umbridge’s office in Hogwarts. However, there were some legit artists who specialized in cats. Ever seen the yellow poster with the spiky black cat and the text, “Tournee du Chat Noir”? It’s by Theophile Steinlen, a prolific painter, sculptor and printmaker.
Louis Wain, though he was guilty of a few of his own excessively adorable cat paintings, created some deviously personified kitties. Diagnosed with schizophrenia (which, let’s just be clear, had no connection to his fondness for felines), Wain painted intriguing cat portraits to illustrate the way the illness made him feel.
