Paint 42 Cats. Then Sell It For £200,000 At Auction
Nov 03, 2015 23:07
Love cats? Love money? Put the two together and you could come up with a masterpiece that could sell for nearly £200,000 at an auction. This is a painting by Carl Kahler, named 'My Wife's Lovers.' It was commissioned by cat enthusiast Kate Birdsall Johnson in 1891.
Needless to say, it's managed to fetch quite a sum. This is the painting in question:
Sotheby's auctioneers in New York say that Johnson adored cats - Persian and Angora breeds, and that her house was home to 350 cats in her 3,000 acre summer residence. The cat in the center of the painting was named Sultan:
“Mrs. Johnson found [Sultan] irresistible and paid $3,000 for him during a trip to Paris. ‘He attracted her fancy, but she was told that he was not for sale. She asked what his value was, and then offered twice the amount, and brought Sultan home with her. He is a big, handsome cat, with a tawny brown coat with splashes of yellow in it and a white breast, and large green eyes.’” —Harley Davis, author of Kahler, the Cat Painter (Sotheby’s catalogue note)
