Kate birdsall johnson summer residence association program

This painting depicts 42 cats owned by San Francisco millionaire Kate Birdsall Johnson, the highlight being a Persian cat named Sultan.

Pardon our dust while we build a better museum! We are open with a series of special exhibitions. During construction, select permanent collection galleries in the Main Building will reopen on a rolling basis. The Portland Art Museum is thrilled to announce that the greatest cat painting ever made is now on view. The 6-by She met the artist and world traveler Carl Kahler in , shortly after he arrived in California from Australia, where he had earned fame painting portraits and horse racing scenes.

Johnson persuaded him to portray her beloved pets and he spent months studying them in preparatory sketches and paintings. In the finished composition, he depicted the cats larger than life size. Around him, outstanding individuals and family groups are depicted from virtually every angle and with a wide range of personality traits.

Kahler enlivened the scene with anecdotal details, such as the cats stalking a moth and, of course, much playful feline interaction. Johnson, who had died two years before, in According to Carr, it seems likely that he coined the expression to refer to the cats and that his widow adopted it for the title. In fact, there were never many more animals than those depicted here.

There is one giant painting that is still often called the greatest, commissioned by a San Francisco millionaire philanthropist, Kate Birdsall Johnson.

Johnson left a modest amount to a relative for their maintenance. Her principal bequest established a hospital for disadvantaged women and children in San Francisco. The artist perished in the earthquake of Art and cat lovers have awaited the painting eagerly, with social media hashtags such as meowsterpiece and purrtlandartmuseum.