Untitled (Three-legged dog), 1975
American artist William Wegman has been photographing his pet Weimaraners since the 1970s. He fell into it almost by accident, while goofing in his home studio with his photogenic pooch Man Ray, who turned out to be a perfect muse. These days Wegman is best known for highly staged and stylised studio portraits of Weimaraners - which he insists are uniquely compelling subjects - dressed in wigs and clothes.
Photograph: William Wegman/National Gallery of Victoria
The world of the Gonds, 2017
The Gond are a tribe in central India who worship tigers and leopards. This big cat by Gond artist Venkat Raman Singh Shyam is Mārjāra, the cat ‘vehicle’ of Hindu folk goddess Shashthi, who protects children. Mārjāra is believed to visit newborn children on the sixth day, to bless them and their mothers.
Illustration: Venkat Raman Singh Shyam/National Gallery of Victoria
Where is mother going? (Donde vá mamá?), 1797–98
Cats have long been linked with the forces of evil - and in particular, witches. At the time Spanish master Francisco Goya made his series Los Caprichos (The Caprices), from which this image is taken, Spain was in the grip of witch-panic - which he mocks here.
Illustration: Francisco Goya y Lucientes/National Gallery of Victoria
Anastasia Ivanovna, Countess of Hesse-Homburg, Princess Trubetskaya, 1757
The love affair between rich ladies and tiny dogs dates back centuries, and has been immortalised in countless portraits. In mid-18th-century Europe, these kinds of paintings were particularly popular - and Alexander Roslin was one of the best.
Photograph: Alexander Roslin/National Gallery of Victoria
Saint Eustace, 1501
German renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer was one of the first champions of nature as a serious subject in its own right, and is best known for his realistic depictions of animals. In this illustration, depicting Roman general-turned Christian martyr Saint Eustace, he gives the hunter’s five hounds particular prominence.
Illustration: Albrecht Dürer/National Gallery of Victoria
Cats in Japan (Japan Lucky Cat Club), 1996
In Japan, cats are generally revered as lucky (and occasionally feared as demonic). This poster by celebrated Japanese pop artist and poster designer Tadanori Yokoo celebrates the ‘maneki neko’ or ‘welcoming cat’, a symbol of good fortune that dates back to the Edo period (1600-1868). Here, contemporary ‘lucky cat’ figurines are seen alongside illustrations that reference famous historical prints.
Photograph: Tadanori Yokoo/National Gallery of Victoria
Russian blue, 2012
Los Angeles-based artist Elad Lassry is known for co-opting the conventions of commercial magazine and product photography for uncanny ends. His images suck you in with a nostalgia hit of familiarity, followed by the suspicion that something’s not quite right. Sometimes it’s a subtle manipulation of the image, or an off-kilter arrangement of the objects in the frame, or the subject’s awkward pose or expression.
Photograph: Elad Lassry/National Gallery of Victoria
Poster for the Company of the Black Cat (Prochainement la très illustre Compagnie du Chat Noir), 1896
One of the most recognisable images of a cat in art history, this poster was commissioned by the popular late-19th-century Parisian cabaret club The Black Cat. Owner Rodolphe Salis chose the black cat as his club’s emblem because of its associations with seduction, independence and nocturnal mischief. The poster’s designer, Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen, was a successful commercial illustrator - and also a cat lover, who frequently drew his own cats.
Illustration: Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen/National Gallery of Victoria
Le Chien De Course (The Greyhound), 1952
This sketch by Austrian expressionist painter, printmaker and writer Oskar Kokoschka captures the beauty and sensitive nature of the greyhound.
Illustration: Oskar Kokoschka/National Gallery of Victoria
Maria of Mars, 2022
Melbourne photographer Atong Atem is known for vivid, artfully staged portraits that subvert the conventions of colonial-era studio portraiture from the African continent. Here, in a self-portrait with Italian greyhound pup Rooster, she plays with Christian iconography as well as the European portraiture tradition of aristocratic women with their lap dogs - while also tapping into her own love of Afrofuturism.
Photograph: Atong Atem/National Gallery of Victoria
We won’t go home till morning, 1900-1910
No artist has dedicated themselves more to the feline cause than Louis Wain. The eccentric English artist almost single-handedly rescued cats’ reputation as agents of darkness with his endearing Edwardian-era illustrations of cats doing human things. Admittedly, this particular cat looks anything but sweet. As a result of his work, Wain was elected president of the National Cat Club in England, and was a regular judge at cat shows.
Illustration: Louis Wain/National Gallery of Victoria
Mr Lion (Dingo story ku’), 2016
In the community of Aurukun in far-north Queensland, camp dogs (or dingo and dog crossbreeds) are known as ku’, and are seen as tangible expressions of ancestral beings. This life-size ku’ carved from milkwood represents Wik-Mungkan artist Vernon Marbendinar’s totemic relationship with the dingo. Its cheeky - and toothy - grin echoes that of a shark, referencing an ancestral story about the transformation of the dingo into the nyiingkuchen (freshwater shark), representing the connection between land and water.
Photograph: Vernon Marbendinar/National Gallery of Victoria
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