On Cats by Jacques Dalbray

On Cats by Jacques Dalbray — Théophile Steinlen. 1901.

Medium: Color lithograph illustration with letterpress. Dimensions: Overall: 39.5 x 58.2 cm (15 9/16 x 22 15/16 in.).

Collection record: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland. Museum connection according to this source; current display unverified.

On this page from the March 30, 1901, issue of L’Illustration (Illustration), a French magazine, colorful depictions of cats surround a short text praising those animals and their place in history. The cats sit, sleep, and prowl around the columns of text, as if they are furnishings to climb and sleep on. Color illustrations were particularly difficult and expensive to reproduce before the advent of modern printing technology because each color had to be printed independently. As a result, artists like Théophile Alexandre Steinlen developed strategies to achieve the maximum effect by overlapping as few colors as possible, such as the yellow, gray, and black that create a variety of fur patterns here.

Source: official collection record. Metadata selected and normalized by Artline from the source export, accessed 10 September 2026; no museum endorsement. Reproduction rights are separate.