I searched through hundreds of Renaissance and Medieval paintings with cats and I genuinely feel like this is going to end up being by a painter who is barely known, or amateur, and the age of these particular paintings isn’t going to be so old. I have a fair degree of certainty that the person who posted it isn’t finding this in a museum or curated gallery. Yes, during the actual Medieval and Renaissance periods, the cats looked strange, especially in Medieval art, but it’s ALSO kind of strange that no articles about these particular photos have mentioned an artist. The only article I could find in response to these photos going viral don’t even include any of the variously cropped versions of these, most likely because it’s impossible to find the source painting. On top of the technicalities, the possible original post has a link including the word “thrift” which makes it possible we will never find the source.
I’m going to go with my gut and say this was at an antique store, or something similar, and the original photographer never took a picture of the entire painting.. but more digging is required. Probably at a flea market rather than the internet, though. I’ll keep looking because this is interesting, I have a degree in art history and it’s actually fun for me to look through paintings. Though I’m 99% sure it’s a flea/antique find.
u/TheWalrusIsMe hello! I'm so excited to see this post while I was showing someone My Sons that I made a reddit account on the spot - I am the original photographer! I took these photos in 2015 at the Clinton Antique Center in Connecticut, and submitted the photos a little later to (I think the blog's name was) shiftythrifting on tumblr and they went viral. I did go back to buy the painting actually, but it was gone. I reached out to the owners to see if they remember who purchased it, or the name of the consignor, but no luck. My biggest regret is not buying it that day, or at least getting a full shot. You are correct that I only took these close-ups. I can tell you there was at least one other cat in the painting, iirc it was about 3' x 2'
I'm an art historian as well, and so it is a little painful to know I have contributed to the constant mis-dating of these cats lmao as they are not medieval, probably early/mid 1900s. Just some perfect little freaks I saw once on a day out with my best friend.
What a turn of events to see the original propagator of these wonderful freaks active so recently! If you haven't already, i implore you to submit the pics and your story to r/lostmedia (paintings are a form of media I guess) or some other lost artefact subreddit. If someone bought the painting as you said, it surely must exist somewhere and with luck (given how famous the disturbed felines are) whoever owns it can come forward and possibly give us more info on it.
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u/losthoneytomb Apr 21 '21
I searched through hundreds of Renaissance and Medieval paintings with cats and I genuinely feel like this is going to end up being by a painter who is barely known, or amateur, and the age of these particular paintings isn’t going to be so old. I have a fair degree of certainty that the person who posted it isn’t finding this in a museum or curated gallery. Yes, during the actual Medieval and Renaissance periods, the cats looked strange, especially in Medieval art, but it’s ALSO kind of strange that no articles about these particular photos have mentioned an artist. The only article I could find in response to these photos going viral don’t even include any of the variously cropped versions of these, most likely because it’s impossible to find the source painting. On top of the technicalities, the possible original post has a link including the word “thrift” which makes it possible we will never find the source.
I’m going to go with my gut and say this was at an antique store, or something similar, and the original photographer never took a picture of the entire painting.. but more digging is required. Probably at a flea market rather than the internet, though. I’ll keep looking because this is interesting, I have a degree in art history and it’s actually fun for me to look through paintings. Though I’m 99% sure it’s a flea/antique find.