So many great artists have shared one very special love: the love of cats. Here you will find 7 modern artists who loved their felines and have taken photos with them:

1. Salvador Dalí with his pet ocelot, Babou

Dali and his ocelot

In the 1960s Dalíbought 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 and Coussi

Henri Matisse and his cats

The last decade of his life, Matisse suffered from cancer, and spent most of his time in bed or on a wheelchair. A number of cats kept him company.

3. Picasso and his Siamese cat, Minou

Picasso with Minou

When Pablo Picasso lived in a garret in Montmartre, he took in a Siamese cat he called Minou. This was during his blue period.

4. Gustav Klimt with Katze

Gustav Klimt and Katze

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

5. Paul Klee with kitty, Bimbo

Paul Klee and 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. “Paul Klee adores cats,” she wrote. “In Dessau, his cat always looked out the window in the studio. I could see him perfectly from my private room. Klee told me the cat looked at me insistently: You can’t have any secrets. My cat will tell me all.”

6. Andy Warhol and Sam

Andy Warhol with Sam

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. Kandinsky and his cat, Vaske

Kandinsky and his cat, Vaske

Look with what a feeling Kandinsky is holding his cat, Vaske!