Lil Bub

One of the OG internet-famous kitties, Lil Bub hails from Indiana and is recognized by her distinctive features, including a shortened lower jaw, dwarfism, and extra toes. Born in 2011, she was the only kitten in her litter to survive. Her physical differences give her a permanently curious, wide-eyed, and kitten-like appearance that captures hearts.

Despite health issues, Lil Bub’s online videos and pics depicting her enjoying life inspire many fans. She promotes awareness and funds for special needs pets. Over 2 million Instagram followers enjoy keeping up with her adventures. Even after retiring from public appearances in 2019 due to health decline, this senior kitty remains a top cute internet cat today.

Suki Cat

This Scottish Fold cat from Canada has earned over 800k Instagram followers. Suki’s blue-grey soft, fluffy fur blends beautifully with her large round copper eyes and adorably folded ears. Her owner posts regular pics of Suki in cute poses and outfits.

One especially popular theme features her snuggled in miniature doll beds and rooms. Clever captions from Suki’s perspective entertain fans as much as the heartwarming pics. This well-dressed feline definitely qualifies as one of the internet’s cutest cats.

Venus the Two-Faced Cat

Hailing from North Carolina, Venus has an unusual split facial fur coloration: half ginger tabby and half jet black with a mustache. She was born part of a feral colony in 2020. Her heterochromia and chimerism grabbed attention across social media as a Janus cat – named for the Roman two-faced god statue.

Despite her anomaly, Venus lives a completely normal, healthy life following her rescue. Her “yinyang face” instantly draws in over 575k TikTok followers and 264k Instagram fans eager to see the latest photos showcasing her unique features. Videos of Venus chilling in cute poses or playing happily highlight her character beyond her striking looks.

Snoozy Cats

These senior rescue cats from Israel find internet fame capturing adorable cat naps in anthropomorphic poses. Alon, Amira and Alfie range from ages 11-18. Their owner created social media accounts in 2019 to share their softer side in retirement.

Over 159k Instagram followers swoon over photos depicting these grey-muzzled sleepyheads curled up together in baskets, miniature couches and beds tailored just for their naps. Clever captions add imaginative details about their dreams. This trio proves senior cats deserve just as much virality for their cute content.

Smush and Pancake – Box Loving Cats

Housed together in Canada, these brother-sister tabby pair measure their small statures against various cardboard boxes in their iconic social media photos. Born in spring 2020 with genetic dwarfism, tiny 4-year-olds Smush and Pancake only weigh about 2.3 kg each at full growth. Their stumpy legs and close sitting positions earned them the monikers “loaf cats.”

Over 234k TikTok fans and 171k Instagram followers tune in to enjoy their silly box antics and adorable loafing. Despite their perpetual kitten-like size, these two live fully enriched lives controlling their cardboard box kingdom one nap at a time.

Tora – Waving Lucky Cat

A Japanese lucky waving cat figurine inspired this 2012 orange tabby’s silly online fame. Owner Hsin Yu posts TikTok videos capturing beloved pet Tora flawlessly posed behind clear glass or plastic floor spaces “pretending” to be a waving lucky cat statue.

With clever editing tricks, it appears as if the friendly feline waves continuously to grant good fortune upon 840k smiling TikTok followers. Tora’s convincing performances and playful personality net an average of over 140k TikTok loves per viral video post.

These remarkable internet-famous felines represent only a small sampling of the growing number of cute cats capturing hearts online right now in 2024 and beyond. From their silly antics to their unique features and endearing personalities, cute cat content continues trending hugely across today’s inter-connected world.

The post Who Are Some of the Cutest Cats on the Internet Today in 2024? appeared first on CatPedia.

Kittens learn to purr at about one week old (before their eyes open), and biologists believe that it developed as a way for kittens to communicate to the mother that she needs to be still while they are feeding. The mother may join in, too, to reassure her young.

Cats also produce an urgent, “solicitous” purr, which they use when wanting to be fed by their owners. This sound is a mixture of the low-pitched rumble of a regular purr and a higher-frequency meow.

Analysis of the meow element shows that its frequency is similar to that of the cry of a human baby, which may help explain our willingness to feed an insistent cat. Among older cats, purring may also communicate nonaggression, vulnerability, or a request from one cat grooming another for it to stay still.

The post Cat’s Purring appeared first on CatPedia.

While black cats are tied to Halloween, black magic and misfortune, there’s significantly more to them than unpleasant stuff. Learn more about them, how they became Halloween symbols, the places where they bring luck, and how their qualities may, at some point, help prevent disease in people.

Witches Best Friends?

Dark felines are quintessential Halloween symbols—and one of the top choices when it comes to party costumes—yet do you know how they got such a scary rap?

Starting in the Middle Ages, black cats were thought to be related with Satan, witches, and black magic; a few people ventured to such an extreme as to say that dark felines were accomplices to witches or even witches who shapeshifted. This wide-spread superstition resulted in terrible mass killing of black cats—and sometimes their masters.

Beside the fact they’re still tied to spooky things, black cats are still feared today. Many shelters won’t place dark cats in homes during October so they’re not used for sacrificial purposes.

Dark Cats Can Help Your Love Life

Disregard the cliché portrayal of the perpetually single cat lady. There are places in the world, where it’s believed that black cats will enhance your love life. Just use your lint roller before going out on a date.

In Japan, for instance, single ladies who have black cats are believed to pull in more partners. In Great Britain’s English Midlands, a black cat is the perfect wedding present— they’re believed to bring good luck and happiness to the bride

Black Cats Will Bring You Luck

Not only can black cats better your love life, but they can amp up your good luck and improve your finances, too.

Historically, sailors brought cats aboard ships to hunt mice—and, presumably, for companionship—but British sailors believed a black cat would bring the ship good luck and ensure a safe return home.

It was a little more complicated for pirates, though. They believed a black cat walking toward you was bad luck; a black cat walking away from you was good luck; and if a cat boarded the ship, then jumped off, the ship was going to sink.

For those of us not in a maritime profession, a black cat arriving at your doorstep signals prosperity (a common belief in Scotland) and a black cat crossing your path signals good luck (in England and Ireland).

Dark Cats Can Resist Disease

Put your lab coat and goggles on: Researchers at the National Institutes of Health discovered that the genetic mutations that cause cats to have black coats may offer them some protection from diseases. In fact, the mutations affect the same genes that offer HIV resistance to humans.

Since cats can experience many of the same health issues as we do—cancer, HIV and Alzheimer’s, to name a few—they make purrfect models for studying human disease. By figuring out how cats have evolved to resist diseases, researchers can, potentially, learn how to prevent disease in humans as well.

Black Cats Can Rust

Okay, so they don’t actually rust like a tin can or bike, but if your black cat has a tabby stripe gene and loves to spend his days lounging in the sun, his fur can turn a rusty brown color. Why? The sun’s rays break down the pigment in their fur to reveal the underlying tabby stripes.

The post 5 Chilling Facts About Black Cats appeared first on CatPedia.

Because food supplies can be scarce and unreliable, any feral cats within one area tend to be drawn to a common food source, such as a garbage dump, a feeding station organized by cat welfare organizations, or an empty building overrun by rats and mice. Out of necessity, these cats tolerate each other and will share resources with minimal aggression.

Where a few feral cats have found shelter, a colony can build up, which over the years can amount to dozens of animals of several interrelated generations. Any unneutered females attract toms—entire males—and frequent matings produce two or more litters of kittens a year for each female.

Established colonies are very much matriarchal societies, with a core population of females that often form close bonds. Female cats have been observed sharing birth dens and cooperatively nursing and raising litters of kittens, taking turns guarding the family when one of the mothers goes out hunting.

Feral females have even been known to present a combined front to fight off marauding toms, which are a constant peril with their desire to kill off kittens and so bring the females back into season for further matings.

As a feral colony expands, the dynamic within it changes, with stronger toms ousting weaker rivals that then either hang around the periphery of the group or strike out on their own to find more congenial territory. Occasionally, males born within a colony do become accepted by the senior members simply because of their familiarity, but a strange tom attempting to infiltrate the group is usually rejected vigorously.

The post Cats Sticking Together appeared first on CatPedia.

When you hear the words “fat cat”, what do you immediately think of? For some, they recall political cartoons from their history class depicting some of the wealthiest owners of trusts or companies depicted as rotund tabbies or other chubby felines. The term “fat cat” was once a derogatory term and was meant to indicate that someone had too much wealth and power. However, in several instances throughout history, cats have had both wealth and power that was absolutely unquestioned.

The Pharaohs of Egypt had house cats who inherited wealth and were mourned after their death by the entire family. People even shaved their eyebrows to mark the passing of a royal cat. Nowadays, cats may not have the power and wealth they once enjoyed in Egypt, but there have been stories of cats who have made money or inherited a fortune.

Many of us have heard stories about eccentric elderly millionaires who do not have family and leave everything to their pet cat. This is a relatively rare occurrence, but it does happen from time to time. Not only do some cats realize wealth through inheritance, but some achieve it while their owners are still alive.

The Richest Cat in the World was a made-for-TV movie by Disney in 1986. The plot is a takeoff on some real life stories about eccentric, moneyed pet owners who leave their fortunes to their cats. In the Disney film, the cat talks and his name is Leo Kohlmeyer. Leo’s owner, Oscar Kohlmeyer leaves his feline companion $5 million while Oscar’s nephew receives $25,000 as long as he doesn’t contest the will. Predictably, the nephew immediately takes action and tries to abduct the cat. There is plenty of adventure, but all’s well that ends well and the cat receives the fortune that was left to him.

Choupette

Fashion legend Karl Lagerfeld has a cat named Choupette who, according to recent estimates, is worth $3 million. The cat is able to use an iPad and she has two maids waiting on her every need. Choupette also has a book coming out which is not so unusual, since George HW Bush’s dog Millie also composed a book. Choupette earned the money herself through work with a car manufacturer and also made her contribution to the fashion industry.

Choupette is a charming Birman cat, which is a breed associated with Burma and has been popular in Europe for a century. Karl Lagerfeld is a legendary German designer who is based out of Paris, though he has worked with most of the major fashion houses in Europe. At age 81 he is creative director of the fashion house Chanel, in addition to having his own label. Lagerfeld is known for his starched colors and his snow white hair, and sunglasses.

Lagerfeld is also known for being rather creative with the truth of his origins; he claims to have Swedish ancestry and makes his mother’s side of the family sound more aristocratic. No one really minds the creative attitude towards lineage; it seems like just another aspect of the creative life. Lagerfeld has been working in the fashion industry since the 1950s. He has had a very tumultuous career, especially when he shocked fashion reporters with his low cut evening dresses and backless gowns.

During the 1960s, the heyday of the miniskirts, Lagerfeld’s were the shortest in Europe. Lagerfeld today is a fashion icon! How appropriate that he designs striking new fashions for the catwalk, given his affection for his cats.

It hasn’t always been Lagerfeld’s clothes that raised eyebrows and got paparazzi rumbling; he has said and done some things that got everyone’s attention. Lagerfeld owns many extravagant homes and lives the ultimate high life. With a lifestyle like his, he has little concern of what people think or say about him. Until his death in 1989 Lagerfeld lived with his long-time partner Jacques de Bascher.

Since his partner’s passing, Lagerfeld has sought comfort with his cat Choupette. He has even said that he would marry the cat if he could. Choupette once belonged to a French male model named Baptiste Giabiconi, until 2011 when he was gifted to Lagerfeld on Christmas. Choupette kept a diary on twitter that was later published in several fashion magazines and led to the cat’s celebrity status.

Lagerfeld has noted that some people he meets talk more about the cat than about him. We can only guess what Choupette is really like, since most artists adopt a persona that is different from reality, but she represents herself as a high maintenance woman who sets high standards for herself and the people around her. This is not surprising as this is a typical attitude in the fashion industry. Though she is a high-maintenance woman, she often expresses a desire to eat antique lace, as well as everyday shopping bags. Her maids, François and Marjorie, dote on her every whim and respect her authority.

At one time there was chatter that Chanel would be putting out a “Choupette” handbag, but the accessory never appeared on the catwalk. Her very blue eyes, which are typical of a Birman, inspired the cornflower blue spring collection of 2012. Karl did create a line of handbags inspired by Choupette. In our magazine, there was even an article entitled “Why Choupette Has a Better Life Than You.”

Most people would agree that having famous chefs preparing one’s food, including Japanese-style cuisine, spending time with one of the world’s premier designers, and having your own branded Uber equals an opulent lifestyle. Choupette Lagerfeld was adopted into wealth by a designer who had already achieved his fame and fortune.

The post The Richest Cats in the World appeared first on CatPedia.

Friendly and attentive, this fine-boned cat is playful and energetic and has an attractive ticked coat. Named after its native…

This affectionate cat has a beautiful coat and a steady temperament that makes it an excellent pet for anyone. The…

A loyal and loving pet, this slinky, graceful cat is curious, full of energy, and needs space to play and…

A desert cat that is well adapted to home life, this breed is active and curious and retains its natural…

This strikingly patterned cat, with an alert expression and royal bearing, is the only naturally spotted domestic breed. This cat…

A newcomer on the pedigree cat scene, this rare and enigmatic cat is active, friendly, and easy to maintain. First…

This little-known breed is affectionate and easygoing with people, especially if socialized from an early age. The history of the…

The mingled colors in this cat’s coat give the breed an unusual marbled appearance. In a tortoiseshell (tortie), two coat…

This delicately colored cat with a sparkle to its coat is loving and enjoys being around children and other pets.…

The post Everything About Cats appeared first on CatPedia.

Nevertheless, their personalities and foibles have made cats a source of inspiration for cartoon caricatures, and their visual appeal has not been lost on the creators of marketing campaigns. The rise of a new generation of “internet cats” is the feline success story of the 21st century.

Felines on film

It is not in feline nature to act to order, and what cats do best is simply being themselves. Filmmakers have not missed opportunities to use this talent, and many actors have shared the screen with a cat that steals the scene just by putting in an appearance. A classic example is the memorable ginger tom befriended by good-time girl Holly Golightly (played by Audrey Hepburn) in Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961).

More recently, another ginger—fluffy, snub-nosed Crookshanks—scored a big hit for his minor role in the Harry Potter series of films, first appearing in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004). Crookshanks was, in fact, played by two cats; most feline actors share their roles, sometimes with as many as four or five look-alike cats. One well-worn film cliché is to combine cats and villains.

A staple character of several James Bond films, including You Only Live Twice (1967) and Diamonds are Forever (1971), is the sadistic, murdering Ernst Blofeld, who cuddles his beautiful white Persian cat while masterminding global domination.

The cat-and-baddie theme is parodied in the Austin Powers spoof spy films (1997, 1999, and 2002), with the hairless Sphynx cat Mr. Bigglesworth (who must never be upset) as the pet of the megalomaniac, and equally bald, Dr. Evil.

The post Cats in Entertainment appeared first on CatPedia.

Myths and superstitions about cats, with countless variations, have had a wide currency and a long life, some lingering into modern times. Few countries do not have a tradition of an unlucky (or lucky) black cat.

Witch’s Familiar

Prowlers of the night—appearing and disappearing in the blink of an eye—cats were long believed to be supernatural creatures that walked with ghosts and evil spirits. The association of cats, particularly black ones, with the forces of darkness was widespread throughout medieval times and lasted into the 18th century.

Many a harmless old woman who kept a cat for company was suspected of being a witch; it was believed that every witch had a “familiar”—a demon servant in the form of a small animal, perhaps a toad or a hare, or an owl, but often a cat.

Even more alarming, an animal could be a shape-shifting witch in disguise, so it was prudent to guard your tongue in the presence of a strange cat. In Europe, millions of cats suffered the same hideous fate as anyone accused of witchcraft, being subjected to trial by torture and burned alive if found guilty.

Lucky for Some

Superstitions about black—or in some cultures, white—cats as omens of either good or ill fortune are surprisingly persistent throughout much of the world. The beliefs are often contradictory, varying from one country or region to another, and can involve complicated conventions.

For example, just the way a person encounters a black cat can matter: whether it crosses someone’s path from right to left, or vice versa, may make all the difference between a good day and a bad one. And while being approached by the cat brings luck, fortune takes a turn for the worse if the cat talks off in the opposite direction.

For the superstitious, in some parts of Europe and in the United States black cats are unlucky. Many US rescue centers find it difficult to find them homes. In Britain, black cats are considered lucky, much in favor as a subject for wedding-day keepsakes such as beribboned charms or whimsical ornaments.

Japan is another country where black cats signify good luck, although here they take second place to the much-loved, multicolored icon Maneki Neko—the “beckoning” cat. Ceramic figurines of this cat, with its doll-like face and raised paw, fill souvenir shops and are commonly placed in doorways to welcome visitors.

According to legend, the original Maneki Neko was a temple cat that invited a passing feudal lord to come in and take shelter, thereby saving him from being caught in a violent storm.

Remarkable Magic Powers

There are numerous myths linking cats with the weather. It is said that a cat will raise a storm by clawing at the furniture, and can predict rain by sneezing or washing behind his ears. Some of these tales may have originated with sailors, who not only need to keep a constant eye on the weather but also have a long-held reputation for being highly superstitious.

Traditionally, seafarers kept a cat on board the ship for protection against the elements. Japanese mariners thought tortoiseshell cats worked best for giving advance warning of storms.

A cat shipmate could also turn into a liability unless treated with care. It was the custom never to speak the animal’s name, otherwise trouble was guaranteed. If the worst happened and the cat fell overboard, nothing short of gales and sinking could be expected to follow.

The popular saying that cats have nine lives has endured since at least the 16th century. In 1595, William Shakespeare certainly thought it familiar enough to use as one of Mercutio’s quips in Romeo and Juliet, and at that time the notion was given some credence.

Because of their quick reflexes and agility, twisting in midair to right themselves after a fall, cats do seem to have a remarkable ability to get themselves out of trouble. To earlier generations, this may well have seemed proof of unnatural powers that enabled a cat to begin a new life after a fatal accident.

Although for much of their domestic history cats have had an image problem, they have occasionally been regarded as protective spirits. This has not necessarily been to their advantage.

Across Europe, mummified bodies of cats have been found inside the fabric of old buildings, where they were walled up in the belief that this would deter rats; and in both Europe and Southeast Asia, cats were buried in fields to ensure good crops.

Less gruesomely, silkworm farmers in China once used cats, or magical pictures of cats, as guardians of the developing silk cocoons. In rice-growing areas, an old tradition was to carry a cat around in a basket for each household to sprinkle with water to encourage the rains.

In medieval Europe, cats were believed to be either witches in disguise or magical spirits working as intermediaries in the service of witches. Fear and distrust led to their wholesale slaughter.

The post Cat Myths and Superstition appeared first on CatPedia.

For a long period, Western artists struggled, and largely failed, to capture the elusive nature of felines in drawings and paintings. It was Eastern art that led the way in portraying cats as they really are. In modern times, interpretations of the cat are as broad as artists’ imaginations.

One of the least popular domestic animals in the Middle Ages in Europe, because of its association with wickedness, the cat was poorly represented in European art until the beginning of the modern age.

A few early images of cats are found in medieval carvings in churches and cathedrals, where they can be seen preying on rats and mice around galleries or on misericords. Some of the most beautiful cat illustrations of the Middle Ages occur in bestiaries, illuminated manuscripts describing animals both real and fantastic.

These texts were not medieval field guides but were used to teach moral principles rather than natural history. Cats also turn up in the illustrated margins of medieval Psalters (books of psalms) and books of hours (prayer books).

Renaissance details

The great artists of the Renaissance occasionally included cats as a minor detail in their work. In the triptych Garden of Earthly Delights painted by Dutch artist Hieronymus Bosch (c.1450–1516), a spotted cat carrying a rat in its mouth can be found among the crowded allegorical scenes.

In another of Bosch’s works, The Temptation of St. Anthony, a cat emerges from beneath some drapery to seize a fish. With its gaping mouth and long, pointed ears, this animal looks more like a small demon than a cat.

Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) was fascinated by the ways in which animals moved—in a sheet of drawings of various animals (including a small dragon), he sketched cats playing, fighting, washing, stalking, and sleeping. Leonardo also added a cat to his drawing of the Virgin and Child, possibly a study for an intended painting. Here, the infant Christ, seated on his mother’s lap, clutches a cat that is doing its best to struggle free.

The cat in medieval religious paintings—perhaps lurking behind a chair leg or hiding under a table—is usually interpreted as a symbol of sin, such as lust, deceitfulness, and heresy. However, viewing these pictures with a modern eye, it is difficult not to suppose that the artists might have included them simply because cats were a normal part of any domestic scene.

Even if they were not regarded with any particular affection, they were readily available as models. Certainly, the cat romping round an urn in The Wedding at Cana, a painting by the Venetian Paolo Veronese (1528–88) based on one of the miracles of Christ, looks merely playful rather than wicked.

Caring for the Sick (c.1440), a fresco by Domenico di Bartolo, is typical of Renaissance paintings in which cats appear as minor figures. Here, doctors and patients in the hospital of Santa Maria della Scala in Siena ignore an imminent cat-and-dog fight.

Feline companions

By the 18th century, cats were beginning to gain ground as house pets rather than as just catchers of vermin. As a popular subject for portraits, they still trailed a long way behind dogs and horses, but were given at least passing attention by some of the major artists of the day, particularly in England.

William Hogarth (1697–1764) included a family tabby in his portrait The Graham Children, and in one of his London street scenes a pair of fighting cats, strung up by their tails from a lamppost, are a reminder of the cruelty that was then casually accepted.

George Morland (1763–1804), who specialized in rustic scenes, painted his own, clearly well fed, cat; and the kitten portrayed by master animal painter George Stubbs (1724–1806) is much in demand as a reproduction in the 21st century.

In France, Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732–1806), whose work was much favored among the upper classes, sometimes found cats useful as accessories in portraits of young women.

The 18th century also saw a proliferation of cats in run-of-the-mill portraits by lesser known artists. These cats were often the companions of children, and in scenes intended to be humorous were shown suffering such indignities as being dressed up in dolls’ clothes or made to dance.

Fluffy snow-white cats, similar to today’s Angoras, seem to have been among the most popular models. In the majority of such portraits, although the cats’ fur and features are rendered competently enough, the subtleties of feline character and movement have clearly eluded the artists. The animals remain strangely static and have neither grace nor beauty.

Eastern expression

Cats have been important in Eastern art for centuries. Generally treated with great respect in Asia, even throughout the periods when they were disliked and mistrusted elsewhere, cats began to be depicted with sympathy and understanding much earlier in the East than in the West.

Some of the most exquisite cat paintings and prints are those by the artists of 18th- and 19th-century Japan. Executed with the lightest of touches in watercolors on silk and parchment, or printed from woodblocks, these Japanese cats play amid flowers, bat at toys with their paws, get up to mischief, and are petted or scolded by beautiful women.

Awake or asleep, they are very real animals, expressing all the natural feline liveliness and mystique so lacking in European art of the same period.

Impressionist cats

From about the middle of the 19th century, artists began to look at cats differently, concentrating more on character than fur and whiskers and bringing the animals to life. One of the most celebrated artists of the French Impressionist movement, Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919), successfully painted cats many times.

Despite most of his subjects looking distinctly drowsy—like the tabby in Sleeping Cat—Renoir’s cats still manage to convey the unmistakable self-possession that comes naturally to all felines. Another French artist, Edouard Manet (1832–83), whose work contained elements of both Impressionism and Realism, put his own cat into some of his paintings.

This comfortable cat, the epitome of respectability, is seen, for instance, in La femme au chat, a portrait of Manet’s wife. However, the black cat in Manet’s Olympia, a painting that scandalized the public when first shown in 1863, is part of a very different picture. Standing uneasily with arched back at the feet of a reclining and naked prostitute, it suggests a return to the depiction of cats as a symbol of lust.

As the 19th century moved into its last decades and the post-Impressionist movement gathered momentum, artists continued to be beguiled by the charm and character of cats. Their interpretations were highly individual, although some well-known cat paintings are conventional enough, such as the delightful Mimi et son chat by Paul Gauguin (1846–1903) in which a chubby toddler plays with a ginger and white cat

The cats painted by Henri Rousseau (1844–1910) were mostly big ones—wild-eyed lions and tigers inhabiting exotic, dream world jungles. But Rousseau’s subjects also included more homey animals, such as the stolid looking pet tabbies in The Tiger Cat and Portrait of Pierre Loti.

The powerful geometric lines and vivid colors of Expressionist artist Franz Marc’s cats are repeated in the background, making an inseparable whole. Bold and dramatic, the painting is a startling portrayal of the endless variations of feline form and movement.

Modern felines

By the beginning of the 20th century, cats in art saw an even more dramatic change in style. There is nothing reassuringly domestic about The White Cat painted by Pierre Bonnard (1867–1947). This humorously weird creature hunches on exaggeratedly long, stilt like legs, narrowing its eyes to sinister slits.

The German Expressionist painter Franz Marc (1880–1916) superbly captured feline form and movement but using vibrant blues, yellows, and reds and curvy geometric shapes. Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) loved cats and they are a recurring presence in his work, their killer instincts acknowledged in gruesome paintings of cats ripping birds to pieces.

The cat as hunter was a theme explored by other modern artists, including Paul Klee (1879–1940), who made it obvious in Cat and Bird that the stylized cat glaring from the canvas has the thought of a bird very much on its mind.

Andy Warhol (1928–87), leader of the Pop Art movement of the 1960s, was the enthusiastic owner of numerous cats (all apparently sharing the name “Sam”). He was another artist who loved bright colors, and his series of rainbow-tinted cats in various poses, which he painted working from photographs, are among his most popular prints today.

Not all cats in modern art are stylized or unconventional, although some appear in disturbing contexts. For example, the perfectly ordinary cats lolling and prowling around the adolescent girls painted by the French artist Balthus (1908–2001) do much to heighten the erotic atmosphere of the that he called The King of Cats, presenting himself as an arrogantly slouching young man with a massive tabby cat fawning around his legs and a lion-tamer’s whip in handy reach.

But possibly few cat paintings are as unsettling as the one in Girl with Kitten by Lucian Freud (1922 –2011). The girl of the portrait, modeled by Freud’s first wife, Kitty Garman, is rigid with tension and seems to be unaware that she has a stranglehold grip around the neck of her blank-eyed, unresisting kitten.

Alongside such provocative images, “Percy,” the white cat temporarily given that name for the double portrait Mr. and Mrs. Clark and Percy by David Hockney (born 1937), seems to be in a reassuringly normal situation, perched on Mr. Clark’s lap. However, that has not stopped commentators from attaching symbolic meanings to Percy’s presence, including the age-old suggestion of infidelity.

In 1891 Mrs Kate Johnson, possibly America’s greatest cat enthusiast, commissioned artist Carl Kahler to paint a portrait of some of her 350 cats who all lived in great luxury in her California home.

Poster icons

Paintings and drawings of cats have by no means been confined to mainstream art. Cats have long been a favorite subject for illustrators of ephemera such as posters and greetings cards. One of the most prolific cat artists for the popular market in the late Victorian era was Louis Wain (1860–1939).

His vast output of amusing and fanciful cat and kitten paintings for cards, books, and magazines are still much sought after by collectors. Wain’s best-known work typically features anthropomorphized cats wearing clothes, playing games, and generally enjoying a human-style social life.

Another popular illustrator whose work has endured for over a century was the Swiss painter Theophile Steinlen (1859–1923). He often painted cats and made some exquisite naturalistic sketches, but is most famous for his poster art. Steinlen’s Art Nouveau “Le Chat Noir” advertisement for a 19th-century Parisian nightclub and artists’ salon is a familiar icon on tote bags, postcards, and T-shirts.

21st-century muses

Cats are still acting as artists’ muses in the 21st century. Conventional, kitsch, weird, and whimsical, they appear in paintings, prints, photographs, and videos. Major art galleries devote exhibitions to “cat art” from all centuries. For a modest fee, any cat owner can commission an animal portraitist to immortalize a favorite pet in any chosen style.

Much fun with felines is also provided by an internet craze for digitally altering world-famous paintings to include a cat. Masterpieces “improved” by the addition of a colossally fat ginger cat range from Leonardo’s Mona Lisa and Botticelli’s Birth of Venus to Salvador Dali’s Dream, in which the surrealist’s leaping, snarling tigers have become something much more benign.

The post Cats in Art appeared first on CatPedia.

Felix was followed by the clownish black-and-white Sylvester featured in Looney Tunes, a series of short cartoons produced by the Warner Brothers studio between the 1930s and the late 1960s. Sylvester, characterized by billowing side-whiskers and a spluttering lisp, wastes much energy trying to catch the canary Tweety Pie.

Equally hapless is Tom, the cat forever outwitted by Jerry the mouse in countless episodes of Tom and Jerry from 1940 to the 2000s. Probably the most famous cartoon cats of all are the wicked Siamese pair in Lady and the Tramp (1955). In their big scene, they casually trash a sitting-room, leaving the spaniel Lady to take the blame.

Strictly for adult audiences with its overtly political and sexual content, the hugely successful Fritz the Cat (1972) is a much darker cartoon comedy about a free-living New York feline. Puss in Boots (2011) is a modern reimagining of the old fairy tale in which the swashbuckling cat encounters other storybook characters such as Humpty Dumpty and Jack of beanstalk fame.

The post Cats as Cartoon Characters appeared first on CatPedia.