Every Royal Portrait Needs a Painter. This Forest Cat Turned the Brush on Himself.
Every royal portrait needs a painter, and here is one who has turned the brush on himself. A long-haired brown tabby Norwegian Forest Cat with a magnificent ruff, tufted ears, and wise golden eyes sits in a dark velvet cap embroidered with gold. His doublet is deep red velvet, stitched with golden oak leaves and acorns, with slashed sleeves and lace cuffs, and a dark cloak bordered with gold hangs from one shoulder. In one paw he holds a wooden palette dabbed with blue, white, ochre, and red, along with a pair of long brushes.
The most famous painter of the Tudor court was Hans Holbein the Younger, a German-born artist who became court painter to Henry VIII. His portraits are so detailed that we can still study the textures of velvet, fur, and embroidery centuries later, and his image of Henry standing with hands on hips helped shape how we picture the king today. Holbein also painted Anne of Cleves before her marriage to Henry, a portrait that has become part of the story of that short-lived union. Artists of the time often painted in oil on wooden panels and ground their own pigments by hand.
This feline artist certainly looks like he has mastered his craft. With his luxurious coat and steady gaze, he could easily be the subject of a masterpiece and the painter at the same time, which is exactly the kind of talent a court would treasure.
