The Book, Cat, & Cat Book Lovers Almanac

of historical trivia regarding books, cats, and other animals. Actually this blog has evolved so that it is described better as a blog about cats in history and culture. And we take as a theme the advice of Aldous Huxley: If you want to be a writer, get some cats. Don't forget to see the archived articles linked at the bottom of the page.

February 23, 2012

February 23, 2011

Matthew Carr, the British artist  (born 1953, died February 23, 2011) gained fame for the realistic detail in his portraits. His career including being mentored by Andy Warhol. His father was Raymond Carr, an Oxford historian, whose specialty was Spanish history. His wife, the historian Anne Somerset, (married in 1988), was probably looking for family connections with her book, Unnatural murder: poison at the court of James I (1998) for both Carrs and Somersets feature in this story of a  four hundred year old murder within the Stuart court.


Carr's last portraits, executed during a remission in his cancer, are disquietingly direct, the faces seem to float loosely on a sea of nothingness. So we are not surprised to see that a portrait he did of Antonia Fraser, (another English historian) includes no details of her cats. 

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