WHAT: "My Wife's Lovers," an oversize 19th century oil on canvas painting measuring 70 inches by almost 102 inches made news early this month when it sold for $826,000 at Sotheby's. Commissioned from Austrian artist Carl Kahler by a California cat lover, the work includes 42 of the owner's 350 cats. Need we mention that she was a millionaire who kept the cats at her 3,000 acre summer residence near Sonoma?
Staff whose only job was to care for the felines maintained their care; upon the owner's death, her will stipulated a gift of $500,000 to guarantee continued care of the cats.
MORE: Named by the owner's husband, the work shows her fondness for Persian and Angora breeds. Primarily a painter of horse racing scenes overseas, Kahler had never drawn a cat before, so he spent three years sketching and getting to know the personality of each cat. The finished painting went on loan to the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, where it created a sensation.
SMART COLLECTORS KNOW: Victorians adored dogs. Dogs in art, particularly 19th century sentimental depictions, have sold well over the past few decades. Cats in art are rarer, but no less popular.
HOT TIP: Superb technique and composition, winsome subject matter, visual impact and collector fondness for a good back story created the perfect scenario for a world-breaking price.
BOTTOM LINE: Combine a rising interest in certain 19th century paintings/artists with collectors partial to cats or dogs, and you begin to understand how this painting reached a monumental price. The entire 19th Century European Art sale brought a total of $9,871,250.
