Impressionist Cats

by Susan Herbert

Book Overview

Cats playing a quiet game of cards, cats at the ballet, cats having a leisurely lunch on the grass, cats boating on the river...These are the quintessential Impressionist cats, painted with vivid, joyous colors in their favorite haunts, at their ease in various ordinary activities.

With their pensive, brooding expressions, cats lend themselves perfectly to reimagining the great works of the Impressionist masters, whether strolling among Claude...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0500295573
• ISBN13: 9780500295571
• Release Date: June 2020
• Publisher: Thames & Hudson
• Length: 64 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 7.4" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

Feel like whimsy?

Feel like having a bit of whimsy? I bought "Impressionistic Cats" a number of years ago and have thoroughly enjoyed the art, the cats, and the cats in art. Definite whimsy! Might I add, the art is good enough to frame and hang. (If no image displays for the cover, just click on the product and go to the product page. It will be there.) This book is an amusing adaptation of Impressionistic art by making all the characters in each painting cats that resemble the characters. However, Susan Herbert has another explanation. She says that Professor Harvey Fishbone, a devout cat lover, collected these paintings and kept them undisclosed, allowing only cats to view them. Now his descendants are releasing these fine paintings for the world to see. Oh, how I wish you could see the print opposite the title page. It is called "after Edgar Degas Absinthe 1876" and had me belly laughing. If you have seen the painting/print, maybe you remember the abysmal look on the poor woman's face. She has been drinking absinthe, the bane of drink at that time. The artist Susan Herbert, who has several other books with cats in the paintings, is quite talented. Not only does she capture the essence and detail--well, impression, ok, the look of the original painting, she knows her cats. You should see this look of the absinthe-drinking cat! Woe and begone! Come any closer and my claws will have your eyes. Something in that line. "After Mary Cassatt The Loge c. 1882" is quite the opposite. Instead of stark and dreary, this is all sweetness and light. Two lovely young kitty women sit in the lower balcony, awaiting the opera. Ah, "after Paul Gauguin Tahitian Women 1891." Lovely, lovely cats, solid, earth-bound maidens of Tahiti. Here's "after Vincent Van Gogh, Self-Portrait, 1889," the one with the swirly turquoise background and Vincent's red hair and beard, only this "Vincent" is a marmalade tabby. One of my favorites: "after Claude Monet The Promenade (Madame Monet and her Son) 1875" showing Mrs. Manet swirling around with her umbrella. Monet/Susan has captured the moment with swirling skirts and puffs of wind made by the twisting umbrella. Ah, the magic of the impression. Lovely Mrs. Cat Monet. Another favorite: "after Berthe Morisot the Cradle 1872" showing a reflective moment of a mother cat after putting down the kitty baby, who has her little paw against her little fur cheek. The sweetness! And a last print: "after Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec In the Salon at the Rue des Moulins 1894" is a study of night cats waiting for toms, sitting in garish colors and velvets of the waiting area. The moment is everything. I do believe that will do.