Realism vs Classicism in Cat Art

I'm not big on so-called "art" unless it's pictures of cats. Especially if they are pictures of me!!  While I want to talk about some pictures of me and contrast artistic Realism as an aesthetic vs the Classical or Romantic aesthetics, I want to convince you that there are many famous pictures of cats. How I will accomplish that task is to simply show you a small sample of the large bunch of famous painters painting cats.  It's kind of odd that all three of the painters that come to mind were French. But many French persons wear t-shirts that say J'aime Les Chats. That's French talk that says "I'm crazy about my cat!" There's also many non-French-person books about art and cats.

Mona Lisa with her cat painted by Leonardo da Vinci

The Mona Lisa is one of the most famous pictures of all time according to experts. I'm not particularly fond of it because the lady creeps me out with how her eyes seem to always look at me. It turns out that my being creeped out was not unfounded!

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Girl sleeping with a Cat by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Renoir was French and painted all kinds of cats. He even painted cats with people who were naked. These are pretty tame compared to what a 14-year old can find on the internet now a days.

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Woman with a Cat by Edouard Manet

Here's another famous painter who painted cats. All mentions of him misspells his first name (should be Edward, right??). I don't want to make a big deal out of it because I want to talk about the juicy part of art theory and then put photos of me into the larger context.

So anyway the first appearances of the term realism was in the Mercure français du XIXe siècle in 1826, in which the word is used to describe a doctrine based not upon imitating past artistic achievements but upon the truthful and accurate depiction of the models that nature and contemporary life offer the artist. I wasn't around in 1826, so I can't vouch for that, but it seems truthy enough. The French proponents of realism were agreed in their rejection of the artificiality of both the Classicism and Romanticism of the academies and on the necessity for contemporaneity in an effective work of art. They attempted to portray the lives, appearances, problems, customs, and mores of the middle and lower classes, of the unexceptional, the ordinary, the humble, and the unadorned.

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I present the following two photos of me for discussion. Here I am looking all humble and unexceptional. Way to unexceptional for my taste. Therefore, this image isn't really art - not the classy kind anyway! I look like a bum and if you've read all my blogs, you know I'm not a ordinary cat. Ordinary cats do not have their own web site! Or their own domain name! (like huskercat.com)

Cat in a window.

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Now contrast that to this one (below), which to my mind looks pretty classy. I kept the same pose in this one. That way you can judge them without bias for your conclusion that I'm a very classy cat. Note that the viewers attention is drawn to me. There are no pointless parts of the image. Just me and I'm all framed up which emphasizes my superiority and greatness in the feline domain.

Let's face it, no "humble" cat (never met one of those, btw) would draw a viewers complete attention like I do. This is a great image. It is clear that this frame and the wall and floor, for that matter, are simply a artistic vehicle to make me look good! And that's how art works.

Cat in a frame

You can take pride in how much you've learned. You're a better person for having undertaken this chore. If you have any questions, I don't want to hear them. For the definitive book on cats in art, go buy this book! It will answer all your questions.

Kira: My Sexy New Friend from Oregon!

There's a two year story behind my Sexy New Friend from Oregon. First of all, Oregon is in another state! Or it is another state ... one of the two. I should have paid more attention. All I know is that it's a long ways away and Kira came all this way to meet me! It's not too surprising really since I'm a Husker celebrity. Apparently she's a big fan since she was wearing a Husker shirt and big red skirt when she met me. I appreciate this kind of gesture. She's very thoughtful like this. By big red skirt I really meant Big Red skirt. Her skirt is obviously rather tiny! HA! (btw, that wasn't a criticism!)

I'd like to make this an educational moment. Let's face it, most people can afford to be smarter. Notice that Kira happens to know how to hold me. Most people don't quite get how to do this correctly. I'm pretty sure she has a cat too. I should do a workshop on proper cat holding and embracing or something. I hope people are paying attention.

This photo demonstrates one of my finer qualities. I make people happy. I don't think she could be happier! People get happy just hanging out with me. It's understandable.

I had a suspicion that Kira had a cat. That explains her nurturant ability to hold me. She has lots of experience, obviously. Kira's cat is named Mufasa (surveillance photo shown here). He's about 4 years old so he doesn't have the kind of worldly experience that I do. But he's got it pretty good living with Kira. Maybe Kira would be my godmother and take me if something horrible happened to my owners .... (not that I'm wishing that or anything!)

The photo-grapher wasn't quite on the ball. If he had been he would have got the picture of Kira laying a smooch on me. If I had a better photographer, he wouldn't have missed this kind of opportunity. A photo is worth 1,000 words (plus or minus, I guess). A photo of Kira actually delivering a kiss would have served as a model for my future visitors.

So I said that there was a two year background on Kira's visit. She found out about me when she was commissioned to do a painting of me. She's a professional artist, not some hack (she even has a college degree in art stuff). It was quite an honor to have an artist commissioned to do my portrait. They must have paid big bucks for that - artists don't come cheap! Even though I've been famous for quite a while, it was my first portrait by a real artist (not a photographer who calls himself an "artist"). I think we can all agree that real artists paint pictures. Photographers just push buttons and annoy you. Real artists can make sculptures too. It would be cool to have a sculpture of me! Maybe they could get Michel Angelo to do it. I've heard he's really good.

They were talking about the painting and I guess my owner was painted in the outfit of her favorite Anime character. I still don't know where Anime is. It's probably farther away than Oregon. Notice that Kira is in native Anime dress. I think it's a very advanced culture given how the Anime worship cats (note the cat ears she's wearing).
I've put a closeup of Kira's painting so you can see me better. I'm on the shoulder of a painting of my owner (the cute one). But Kira did an excellent job of rendering a representation of me. I think "rendering" means painting something. I've never used that word. I just heard my owner keep saying it. I think he was trying to impress the artist somehow.