May 13, 1820

The delicate head below, titled "Tabby Cat", (1874) is by artist William Huggins, who created it with pencil, and crayon. The eyes are amazing, and capture a wild knowingness that is rare in cat portraiture.




Huggins, (May 13, 1820 to February 25, 1884) is in fact best known as an animal painter, and was famous during his Victorian heyday. His brother was a well-known architect and his sisters were recognized for their flower paintings. According to his Oxford Dictionary of National Biography article:

Huggins spent many hours making life studies at the Liverpool zoological gardens. He was specially fascinated by the lions and tigers of Wombwell's travelling menagerie, and these he sketched whenever the opportunity allowed. His drawings in chalk and pencil, often on grey paper, displayed fine draughtsmanship; he worked equally well with watercolours and later oils. ...The influence of George Stubbs, which Huggins readily acknowledged, may be seen in an early painting of two pumas. As well as big cats, Huggins painted farmyard animals and was particularly successful with his drawings of donkeys and groups of cattle. Sentimental works, such as Faithful Friends, earned him the epithet the Liverpool Landseer, which he resented. When one of his patrons tried to pay him a compliment by comparing him to Landseer, Huggins allegedly responded: ‘Landseer! If I had had Landseer through my hands for six months I could have made a man of him’...He later settled in the village of Christleton, Cheshire, where he died on 25 February 1884. In his last years he suffered partial paralysis, which eventually stopped him from painting. Of less than average height, with a florid complexion, Huggins had unusually long hair and dressed somewhat shabbily. He was good-natured and helped friends who were in financial straits, despite often facing difficulties himself. But he could also be shy and prickly.

The same article also says:

He never saw big cats in their natural environment and in consequence his backgrounds were understated. Their subtlety, however, served to focus all attention on the powerful depiction of the animals themselves.

The following painting is dated 1845.  This portrayal is evidence that while his house cats may look like big felines, his wild cats, actually look, like kitty cats.