?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 40,000 - $ 60,000
THEOPHILE-ALEXANDRE STEINLEN (1859-1923) [WINTER CAT.] Oil painting on canvas. 19x24 3/4 inches. Condition B+. Framed. Although perhaps best known for his lithographs and posters, Steinlen also loved to draw and paint. His output of drawings and prints was so prodigious that his talent for painting has been largely ignored. In the posters he designed to promote the two major exhibitions of his work during his lifetime, 1894 and 1903, he prominently lists "paintings" as being included — an indication of their importance to him. However, few paintings today ever come to market. The largest collection of Steinlen's paintings can be seen at the Museum du Petit Palais, in Geneva, Switzerland. The "Winter Cat" is a good example of Steinlen's versatility as an artist, because the image exists in several different forms. The original sketch is in the collections of the Louvre, in Paris. The image was used in 1909 for a poster advertising the "2e Exposition des Artistes Animaliers," and then again that same year as a decorative print issued by Sagot. At the same time Steinlen, whose love for animals (and cats in particular) was one of the driving forces behind his art, executed the image in oils. While the cat is depicted in near identical repose to the printed images, we are also shown that the cushion is on a chair, a detail not included in the poster and panels. The depth and intensity of the color and detail are achieved in manner that only oil paints can afford, with the patterns of the brush strokes offering a further dimension that doesn't exist in the world of lithography.
![THEOPHILE-ALEXANDRE STEINLEN (1859-1923) [WINTER CAT.] Oil painting on canvas. 19x24 inches.](https://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/full//882\583882.jpg)
