December 13, 1923

 

Theophile Steinlen is renowned as a painter of cats, among other things, and though born in Lausanne, he adopted Montmartre as his home. Thus his prints give us a sense of fin de siecle cats in Paris. One of his early commissions was an advertising print for "Le Chat Noir", a bistro frequented by artists. Of course he did other subjects, and in fact used a pseudonym for some pictures which portrayed the ills of society. But he often managed to work a cat into the scene, regardless of the subject. Steinlen who died December 23, 1923, left us pictures of cats who were centered, chic, and rangy