Several artists are known for their love of cats, Henri Matisse being one of them. While the greatest love of his life was definitely his art, he only left behind very few paintings featuring cats. The most well-known one being ‘Marguerite au chat noir’, featuring his daughter with a black cat in her lap, possibly his own favourite, La Puce. Matisse was known to spoil her by feeding her brioche for breakfast!
There is however a fair amount of works that are being attributed to Matisse, but in reality, are more and less good imitations. Others bring a salutation to the artist, for example by adding a cat to a well-known scene. My personal favorite: ‘Interieur, bocale de poisons rouges’ from 1914, but with an added black cat by the hand of and unknown painter!
Especially from the autumn of his life, we know a fair amount of pictures of the artist himself with his beloved cats. He was battling with cancer and the last years of his life, he was bedridden. A lot of the cat photo’s date from that era. Many a cat enthusiast knows quite well what an exquisite the cat can be!
