Cats in Art: Two Grey Cats (Marc)

From my continuing weekly Sunday series of cats in art. I'm using some ideas from the coffee table book, The Cat in Art, by Stefano Zuffi.

This is my third post on Franz Marc (1880-1916), a key German painter whose life tragically ended early on the Western Front in 1916. This will be a multi-week series (I am still uncovering his cat works).

Image credit The Atheneum, here.  Two Gray Cats (also known as Study of Cats II), Franz Marc, 1909, oil on canvas, 16" x 20", held in a private collection.

At first glance I originally thought that these kitties were laying in the snow, then I realized that they were on a bedsheet or cover of some sort, from Marc cleverly showing us a glimpse of the underlying surface down there in the lower right.

 

Both are clearly calico, thus female.  What I really like about this image is while the one in the foreground is napping, so dead to the world that she is sleeping on her forehead, the girl in the back is keeping a watchful eye on the proceedings. 

 

As previously noted, Marc really know the subtle nuances of cat posture.  Make you wonder who the cats were in his life.