Theophile Steinlen was a Swiss artist renown for his paintings of cats. Theophile Steinlen was born in Lausanne, Switzerland in the year 1859. This is the French speaking part of the country.
Steinlen was also an avid printmaker.
Below a great selection of works by Steinlen. This includes not only his famous cats, but wonderful landscapes and female nudes:
The artist attended college at the University of Lausanne.
Steinlen was a successful commercial artist painting not only cats, but chickens and other animals. The artist also painted the figure. He was in demand by leading cultural magazines of the time.
Steinlen was also a sculptor with cats being his favorite subject.
Theophile Steinlen passed away in 1923.
In this clip we view a work by Steinlen that appeared on my favorite television show, the Antiques Roadshow!:
Price range information: Works range from $5,000 to $150,000.
Steinlen is included in the National Gallery of Art located in Washington D.C.
What a great subject matter! I love cats, what awesome models they make since they don’t talk and they move so very little. Steinlen does a wonderful job of capturing the emotional spirit of cats!
Willy Ronis was a French photographer (The first image is the artist himself.) Willy Ronis was born in Paris, France in the year 1910. His parents had left their home countries of Odessa and Lithuania because of their treatment of Jewish people. His father ran a portrait photography studio and his mother gave piano lessons.
His father would pass away from cancer in the mid 1930s and Ronis took over the family business of shooting portraits. This business would fail soon after his father’s death, and Willy Ronis would go on to be a free lance photographer.
Price range information: Most works priced between $2,000 and $20,000.
The artist became the first French photographer to work for the magazine Life.
Ronis was the recipient of a gold medal award at the 1957 Venice Biennial.
Below a wonderful selection of images by Willy Ronis:
Willy Ronis passed away in 2009.
Similar to other luminaries such as Diane Arbus, Willy Ronis did a wonderful job at capturing the feeling of a moment. Be it romance or a cat that is taken by a bird or a something in a window, the artist was magnificent at documenting fleeting moments of time.
Kesa hails from Montpelier, France. Kesa was born in the year 1980.
One of the artist’s best known series involved using vinyl records as his main medium. He turned the records in various shapes representing birds, cats, and bats fleeing from the circular shape of the record.
The artist began writing graffiti in 1996.
Price range information: Sorry none available.
The work of Kesa seems ideally made for one specific time of year, Halloween! Especially the works featuring black cats!
Mary Fedden was a British artist renown for her modernist paintings of the still life. Mary Fedden was born in Bristol, England in the year 1915.
Fedden attended the Slade School of Art located in London, England.
The artist was the first women to teach at the Royal College of Art located in London, England. Some students of hers included David Hockney and
She is sometimes mistaken as being the daughter of Sir Roy Fedden. Sir Roy Fedden helped to design aircrafts and was a noted engineer. Sir Roy Fedden was the uncle of Mary Fedden.
Fedden was married to another artist name Julian Trevelyan. As a huge fan of families of artist, Julian Trevelyan will be the next post! The couple were based much of their life sharing a studio on the famed River Thames.
In this clip we view a wonderful selection of paintings by Mary Fedden. She was able to have great depth in her work. This quality is always enhanced in her works by large very flat areas of the painting. A great combination:
Mary Fedden passed in 2012 at the age of 96 years of age.
Below we visit the studio of the artist. It is very interesting because she NEVER paints away from her studio. This is a short clip from a documentary about Mary Fedden:
Price range information: Fedden was a very prolific painter and printmaker. Works start at $8,000 for a watercolor, gouache, or print. Original oils can fetch $60,000.
David Burnham Smith is a self taught artist from the United Kingdom who is renown for his work with ceramics.
David B. Smith is self taught as an artist.
The artist was injured as a young man on a motorcycle. This caused him to remain still and as a result he learned to draw and practiced daily. His hospital stay lasted nearly two years. During this time another artist ended up giving him lessons whilst he was in hospital, the artist name was Erian Slack.
After he left the hospital Smith was a studio assistant for Slack. After this period of time Smith was able to find full time work as a graphics designer.
Smith started off as a collector of fine china. What he bought was usually damaged, but it was what he could afford. Smith researched his subject and eventually made his own pottery restoration studio in his own house.
Gladys Cook is a wonderful American artist renown for her portraits of domestic dogs and cats. Gladys Cook was born in the year 1899. For her artistic education Cook attended the Art Student’s League of New York City.
Cook enjoyed a lengthy career as an illustrator and commercial artist. Some companies she worked for including companies that sold cat products such as Puss N Boots.
Later in her career she became an avid marine painter.
Much of her animal work is in charcoal and pastel.
Gladys Cook passed away in 1976.
Price range information: Sorry none available.
Some other great artists who paint dogs and cats include Edmund Osthaus and John Weiss.
Fannie Moody was a fantastic painter of domestic animals and the landscape. Her father was also a renown painter of animals named Francis Wollaston Moody. Her father also taught decorative painting.
Fannie Moody was born in the year 1861.
It seems by her portfolio Fannie Moody enjoyed painting terriers the most of any breed.
Fannie Moody worked in many mediums including watercolors, pastels , lithography, and oils.
Fannie Moody passed away in 1948.
Price range information: Works range from $1,000 to $20,000.
Francis Wollaston Moody was painter of people and the figure and also was a teacher of decorative painter. The artist was born in the year 1824. The artist passed away in 1886. Below some fine examples of his style:
Inagaki Tomoo was a Japanese printmaker born in Tokyo, Japan in the year 1902. Like many other sosaku- hanga artists he was inspired and mentored by Koshiro Onchi and Un-ichi Hiratsuka. Tomoo was a renown printmaker working with many subjects from landscapes, animals, and florals.
For his working process Tomoo would make preliminary drawings using grid lines to make sure items were located with a great sense of design.
Inagaki Tomoo studied with print master Hamada Masuji. He also went to an art high school. After this he opened his own design studio, but this dream was interrupted by the demands of World War Two.
The artist began to have his work published in 1924 appearing in a leading arts magazine titled shi to hanga that featured sosaku- hanga artists and focused on visual arts (printmaking in particular) and poetry.
Very few print artists during this era were able to make a living entirely from their prints. Inagaki Tomoo worked in a steel factory and also taught art at the high school art.
Tomoo is renown for his prints of animals. Tomoo was legendary for his portrayal of cats. The artist worked with other animals, but his cats are the most renown. He began to print them in the 1950s.
Tomoo flourished the most in his career in the 1950s.
Inagaki Tomoo passed away in 1980.
Price range information: Works range from $500 to $5,000.
Utagawa Kuniyoshi was a master Japanese printmaker born in the year 1797. Utagawa Kuniyoshi was very prolific and his work is awesome to study as he draws and paints everything from flowers, beautiful women, soldiers, animals, landscapes, to very large triptych works. You can learn a great deal about composition and drawing from this artist. His father made a living working with silk.
The artist was an apprentice to Toyokuni, a leader of the Utagawa style of art, from 1811 to 1814. After leaving this situtatio he was able to start an artistic career by illustrating books.
In the 1820s Kuniyoshi began to produce his very large triptych prints, many involving soldiers and warriors.
The artist was part of the Utagawa school of woodblock printing. This style of art was founded by Toyoharu and was the most popular woodblock printing school during the 19th century.
In this clip we view some of Utagawa’s Kuniyoshi’s beautiful women:
In this clip we view some cats by Utagawa Kuniyoshi:
Utagawa Kuniyoshi passed away in 1861.
To close we look at some great prints of warriors and soldiers by Utagawa Kuniyoshi:
The artist helped to mentor many others who chose to follow the Utagawa style of painting. Some pupils include Yoshitoshi and Yoshiiku. These and others will be profiled soon!
Price range information: Works range from $2,000 to $75,000.
Pure Evil is a street artist born in the year 1968 in South Wales, England. His government name is Charles Uzzell Edwards. Banksy has been a mentor to the artist. Charles Edward’s father is also a painter who works in an abstract manner, John Edwards born in 1938. Below an example of Edwards abstract style of painting. The artist got the name from a cat he drew in his sketchbook, he liked to look at the good and the bad of life, but enjoyed creating the bad so chose the name Pure Evil.
Price range information: Screenprints on paper range from $200 to $700.
A link to the website of Pure Evil. You can see many prints for sale at this site:
The artist helped run a clothing line that started in England and Japan and moved stateside named Anarchic Adjustment which began in London in the mid 1980s.
In this clip a great interview with the BBC and Pure Evil:
Its great to see another street artist who is doing so well in the business of art, the artist has many screenprints available. The artist also saw his work appear on clothing, so he has an outstanding sense of design.
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