Custom cat portraits: 10 styles fit for a cat’s dignity

Ten cat paintings by Henriëtte Ronner-Knip, Carl Kahler, Courbet and Renoir, each the masterwork behind a Fable portrait style, with the photo that suits each one.

Cats are hard to paint. They will not hold a pose, they hate being looked at, and they are rarely where you want them. The painters who managed it, above all Henriëtte Ronner-Knip, who spent fifty years painting cats in a glass-fronted box in her Brussels studio, gave us the best cat portraits ever made.

Each painting below is the masterwork behind one of Fable’s portrait styles. Under every picture you can order the original as a print, or send a photo of your own cat to that style and see a free preview first. We also say which kind of photo works best for each, so a sleepy cat and a curious one each get the setting they deserve.

1. My Wife's Lovers

Dozens of fluffy white, black and calico cats lounge on carved furniture and pink satin drapes in a lavish room.

Carl Kahler, My Wife's Lovers, 1891–1893. Oil on canvas.

The most famous cat painting ever made. An American millionaire, Kate Birdsall Johnson, owned so many Turkish Angoras that she commissioned the Austrian painter Carl Kahler to paint them all, and it took him three years. Her husband is said to have called them her lovers. Forty-two cats lie across silk and carved wood in a room fit for a palace.

Best photo: your cat lying on something soft and luxurious, a cushion, a throw or a bed, in good light. Long-haired cats look magnificent in it.

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2. Girl with a White Shawl and a Cat

A young woman with auburn hair, wrapped in a sheer white shawl, holds a sleeping brown and white cat in her lap.

Charles Joshua Chaplin, Girl with a White Shawl and a Cat, 1891. Oil on canvas.

Charles Chaplin was a French painter of soft, pearly portraits of young women, and here the cat is as important as the sitter. She looks straight at us while the cat sleeps in her lap, both of them wrapped in the same pale light.

Best photo: you holding your cat in your lap, looking at the camera, with a plain wall behind you.

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3. Lady with her Cat

A woman in a white gown and blue shawl sits beside a large fluffy white and orange cat on a polished table.

Marguerite Gérard, Lady with her Cat, 1837. Oil on canvas.

Marguerite Gérard was one of the few women who made a living as a painter in eighteenth-century Paris, the sister-in-law and pupil of Fragonard. Her sitter and her cat share the picture equally: the woman calm in white and blue, the cat sitting up on the table like a second guest.

Best photo: your cat sitting up next to you on a table or a sofa arm, both of you looking towards the camera.

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4. Woman with a Cat

A young woman in a lace bonnet holds a fluffy white cat with grey markings against a dark background.

Gustave Courbet, Woman with a Cat, 1864. Oil on canvas. Worcester Art Museum.

Courbet is known for big, tough paintings of workers and landscapes, but this is one of his gentlest pictures. A young woman in a lace bonnet holds a white cat to her cheek, the fur and the lace painted with the same soft light against a dark ground.

Best photo: you holding your cat close to your face, in warm indoor light.

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5. Cat Hunting Birds

A black and white cat walks through tall autumn grass with a small bird in its mouth.

Bruno Liljefors, Cat Hunting Birds, 1883. Oil on canvas. Gothenburg Museum of Art.

Bruno Liljefors was Sweden’s great painter of wild animals, and he painted his own cat like a hunter in the wild. A black and white cat walks through autumn grass with its catch. It is honest, unsentimental and full of the cat’s real nature.

Best photo: your cat outdoors in the garden, walking or stalking, side on.

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6. Cat with Five Kittens

A mother cat lies on a rug while five kittens climb over a rose upholstered footstool around her.

Henriëtte Ronner-Knip, Cat with Five Kittens, 1890. Oil on canvas. Noordbrabants Museum.

Ronner-Knip at her best: a mother cat watches calmly while five kittens climb all over a rose-coloured footstool. She built her pictures from hours of watching real cats, and every kitten here has its own character.

Best photo: a cat with kittens, or several cats together in the same room.

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7. Cat with Kittens

A ginger mother cat rests with her kittens on a patterned rug in a dark alcove under trailing ivy.

Henriëtte Ronner-Knip, Cat with Kittens, 1844. Oil on canvas. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

An early Ronner-Knip, painted in 1844 when she was still in her twenties. A ginger mother cat lies in a dark alcove with her litter on a patterned rug, ivy trailing above. The dark background makes the warm fur glow.

Best photo: a ginger or tabby cat lying down, with a dark or plain background.

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8. Cats on a Console

A white kitten laps spilled milk from an overturned cup on a console table beside fruit, crayfish and crystal.

Charles Monginot, Cats on a Console, 1859. Oil on canvas. Centre national des arts plastiques, Paris.

Monginot was a pupil of Thomas Couture and a painter of still lifes, and here two cats have broken into one. A white kitten laps up spilled milk among the crystal, the fruit and a plate of crayfish. It is a still life with the cats as the guilty party.

Best photo: your cat on a table or a kitchen counter, somewhere they should not be.

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9. Curiosity

A fluffy white kitten with pale blue eyes lies on maroon fabric and looks down at a small insect.

Henriëtte Ronner-Knip, Curiosity, 1889. Oil on canvas.

A white kitten on a maroon cloth bends its head to inspect an insect. Ronner-Knip called the picture Curiosity, and it is the perfect portrait of a young cat discovering the world.

Best photo: a white or pale cat looking down at something, lying on a coloured blanket.

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10. Head of a White Angora Kitten

Close-up of a fluffy white Angora kitten with large green and amber eyes against a muted background.

Henriëtte Ronner-Knip, Head of a White Angora Kitten, 1892. Oil on canvas.

Just the head of a white Angora kitten, painted close and quick, with enormous eyes. It is the simplest picture here and perhaps the most loved, because it is all about the face.

Best photo: a close-up of your cat’s face looking straight at you. Every breed works.

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Every cat on this page can come home with you in two ways: as a print of the original masterwork, prepared from its museum scan, or as a portrait of your own cat in the same style, with a free preview before you choose. For cats, a photo taken at their level in soft window light works best, with the eyes sharp. For the history of cats in painting, from Egypt to Manet, read our guide to famous cat paintings.

Questions

What photo works best for a cat portrait?

A sharp photo in soft daylight, taken at your cat’s eye level, with the eyes in focus. A cat lying down suits the Ronner-Knip styles; a cat on a lap suits the portraits of women with their cats.

Can I have my cat painted with me?

Yes. Styles painted after Courbet’s Woman with a Cat, Charles Chaplin’s Girl with a White Shawl and a Cat and Marguerite Gérard’s Lady with her Cat are made for a person holding their cat. Send a photo of you both.

Who was the most famous painter of cats?

Henriëtte Ronner-Knip, a Dutch painter who worked in Brussels, is the best known. Carl Kahler’s My Wife’s Lovers, with forty-two cats, is the most famous single cat painting.

Is the preview free?

Yes. You see your own cat in the style first, and only pay if you order a print, a canvas or the digital file.