Cats

By turns domestic and wild, familiar and fierce, indomitable and cuddly, cats were omnipresent in the art of the nineteenth century. Artists and writers made them their companions of choice, while poets such as Baudelaire sang of their mysterious and sensual beauty. Draughtsmen, painters, sculptors and photographers tried to capture the cat's supple form, discreet presence and hypnotic gaze. Drawn from the rich collections of the Musée d'Orsay, works by Courbet, Millet, Bonnard, Rivière, Steinlen and Zola bear witness to this fascination for the enigmatic, freedom-loving feline.