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Pierrot and the Cat | Théophile Steinlen | 1889

Pierrot and the Cat | Théophile Steinlen | 1889

€32,95
€32,95
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About the artwork:

Théophile Steinlen’s Pierrot and the Cat (1889) captures the tender, melancholic spirit that defined both the Montmartre bohemian scene and Steinlen’s own artistic personality. Known for his political engagement and his deep affection for cats, Steinlen blends whimsy with quiet social observation in this intimate composition. Pierrot—traditionally a figure of innocence, longing, and gentle sorrow—appears here not as a theatrical caricature but as a humanized, contemplative presence, softened by the companionship of a graceful cat, a creature Steinlen painted obsessively and lovingly throughout his career. The pairing evokes themes of vulnerability and silent understanding, suggesting that both clown and animal exist on the margins, far from the glamour of the Belle Époque cabaret culture Steinlen frequented through Le Chat Noir. Beneath the artwork’s charming exterior lies an empathetic gaze at fragile beings who navigate a world that often overlooks them—a recurring sentiment in Steinlen’s broader output, from his social commentary illustrations to his portraits of Montmartre’s working class.

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  • Title Pierrot and the Cat (Pierrot et le Chat)
  • Artist Théophile Alexandre Steinlen (Swiss-French painter, printmaker, illustrator, poster artist and sculptor of the Belle Époque; Lausanne, 10 November 1859 - Paris, 13 December 1923; naturalised French in 1901; one of the defining figures of the Le Chat Noir Montmartre milieu)
  • Year of creation 1889 (painted during Steinlen's early Montmartre years, eight years after his definitive move to Paris in 1881 at the age of 22. The subject — a small child dressed in the white loose-fitting costume of the commedia dell'arte clown Pierrot, holding an evidently uncomfortable black cat — joins the two great motifs of Steinlen's career: tender, melancholic depictions of children and his obsessive, virtuosic depiction of cats. By 1889 Steinlen had been working for several years for Le Chat Noir, Rodolphe Salis's famous Montmartre cabaret in Boulevard de Clichy, providing illustrations for the cabaret's eponymous magazine and steeped in the bohemian artistic and literary culture that revolved around it; his iconic Tournée du Chat Noir poster of 1896 — the silhouette of a defiant black cat on a yellow ground — would become one of the most famous images of the Belle Époque. The figure of Pierrot — traditionally the white-faced, white-clad sad clown of the Italian comedy, a melancholic and tender outsider — was a particular favourite of the Montmartre artistic circle around Le Chat Noir, treated in parallel by Adolphe Willette, the poet Jules Laforgue, the composer Claude Debussy, and somewhat later by Cézanne, Picasso and Severini. Steinlen had a daughter, Colette, who appears repeatedly in his oeuvre, and the child here is often identified as her. The black cat, dangling tensely from the child's arms, anticipates the literary and graphic ubiquity of the black cat in Montmartre iconography. Steinlen, more politically and socially engaged than most of his cabaret colleagues, would in the following decade increasingly use the same draughtsman's idiom for left-wing illustrations in journals such as Gil Blas, Le Mirliton and L'Assiette au Beurre)
  • Technique/Medium Oil on canvas
  • Original dimensions Not publicly documented
  • Collection/Museum Private collection (the painting's current location is not publicly documented; WikiArt and other catalogues list its whereabouts as unknown / private hands)

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