Is cat art the cat’s meow?
Is this cat art portrait by Conrad Felixmüller ‘the cat’s meow’?
One colourful kitty
Conrad Felixmüller’s colourful “Herbstblumen mit Katze II“ (Autumn Flowers and Cat II) changed hands in the autumn of 1926, when the artist’s major patron Heinrich Kirchhoff acquired the painting in exchange for three early works. It exemplifies the development of Felixmüller’s painting style – his departure from Expressionism and Cubism and approach toward the new, all of which made this an outstanding piece in the Heinrich Kirchhoff collection. The still life is one of few works by Felixmüller that are not centred on a human subject, highlighting his move from contemporary “-isms” and embrace of a new realism. In it, the artist uses bright colours to render two bouquets of asters in vases, creating a frame around a cat lying on the table sunk in a silken slumber.
Conrad Felixmüller
Herbstblumen mit Katze II, 1922
oil on canvas, 90.5 x 75 cm