Meet 13 Famous Artists and Their Cats (Cuteness Overload!)

1. Salvador Dalí with His Pet Ocelot, Babou

In the 1960s, Salvador Dalí bought a pet ocelot called Babou, which accompanied him on a leash and a studded collar nearly everywhere he went—including, famously, a restaurant in Manhattan. When a fellow diner became alarmed, he calmly told her that Babou was a normal cat that he had “painted over in an op-art design.”

2. Henri Matisse Loved His Cats: Minouche, Coussi, and Puce

In the last decade of his life, Henri Matisse suffered from cancer and spent most of his time in bed or in a wheelchair. A number of cats kept him company. It is said that Matisse liked to feed them brioche in the morning. The artist also included his felines in some of his paintings.

3. Gustav Klimt with Katze

Gustav Klimt called his cat Katze (which stands for “a cat” in German). Though the artist is not known for any artworks of cats, opting instead for female subjects, his love for Katze is widely known.

4. Georgia O’Keeffe and Her Desert Companion, Jinx

Georgia O’Keeffe is known as the owner of utterly cute chow chow dogs, but she was also a cat lover. One of her Siamese cats, Jinx, appears in photographs accompanying the artists when she painted the New Mexico desert.

5. Paul Klee with Kitty, Bimbo

Paul Klee’s love for cats started at a young age, since they were always a part of his family. Years later, Klee shared his studio with his feline friend, Bimbo, a beautiful white long-haired cat who followed him everywhere. In the memoir Kandinsky and I, Nina Kandinsky remembers Klee’s love for animals.

6. Andy Warhol, Hester, and Sams

Andy Warhol loved cats. In 1954, he published a book of hand-colored lithographs titled 25 Cats Name Sam and One Blue Pussy. According to Warhol’s nephew, who published his own book Uncle Andy’s Cats in 2009, Warhol’s collection of cats began when he feared his single cat named Hester would grow lonely. After bringing home another cat, named Sam, the cat family eventually reached 25 felines, each of whom Warhol gave the same name—Sam.

7. Louise Nevelson, Fat-Fat, and Cous-Cous

Another famous artist who isn’t particularly known for her love for cats was Louise Nevelson. In the picture above, she is pictured with her cats Fat-Fat and Cous-Cous in front of one of her sculptures.

8. Kandinsky and His Cat, Vaske

Look at the positive feeling Wassily Kandinsky has when he is holding his cat, Vaske!

9. Pablo Picasso and Minou

Another cat lover was Pablo Picasso. The artist even featured his felines in some of his works. His favorite was a Siamese cat called Minou (French for “kitty”).

10. Claude Cahun, Kid, and Nike

Gender-bending Surrealist artist Claude Cahun was a great lover of cats. They featured their felines in many of their self-portraits, including the series Le Chemin des chats (The Way of the Cats), in which Cahun follows in the footsteps of their cat Nike. For them, cats were a medium between what is visible and invisible, or intuitive.

11. Ai Weiwei and His 30 Cats

When he lived in Beijing, the famous contemporary artist Ai Weiwei owned around 40 cats! They were all rescued by a group of activists from a truck where they were being transported, reportedly for slaughter. After leaving China, Ai Weiwei became the owner of three abandoned cats that he took to his home–Shadow, Half, and Yellow.

12. Berenice Abbott and Cat Postcards

Not only was the famous American photographer Berenice Abbott a proud owner of cats, but she also enjoyed sending postcards with cats, which she found in museum shops, to her friends. Here, she is portrayed with one of her furry pets in Maine.

13. Frank Stella and Marisol

The master of minimalist abstract art, Frank Stella, owned a cat called Marisol. In the photograph above, we can see them enjoying their company while Stella takes a break from his work.