Ronald Searle: L'Apéritif

Yesterday in Monaco at L’Hôtel des Ventes de Monte-Carlo (HVMC), an ink and watercolor depiction of two cats seated at outdoor tables was sold at auction. The artist is Ronald Searle (1920-2011).

L'Apéritif (1974)
Ronald Searle

The cats, female and male, are seated at separate tables. The female cat is as yet unaware of the male cat's attention. On the right we see a rare instance in which Searle dressed one of his male cats in trousers and oxfords. The pants have no top and seem to be an organic part of the cat's crossed legs. The female cat is also endowed with recognizably human legs. They are shapely and end in high heels, not unlike the legs of Searle's Catahari or The Big Show. Most remarkably, though, Searle vividly endowed his cats with distinctive human personalities.

Catahari

Ronald Searle

https://www.flickr.com/photos/queenieandthedew/6580611779/in/photostream/

The Big Show
Ronald Searle

http://flickr.com/photos/queenieandthedew/6580591963

For those who couldn't be there in person, lots from the Monte Carlo sale were listed on the Invaluable website.

Ronald Searle
Invaluable listing accessed July 7, 2026

https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/ronald-searle-1920-2011-128-c-374b288f0a?objectID=205007728&algIndex=upcoming_lots_lotNumber_asc_prod&queryID=82d6a89f27f85dac7e0e706e280387eb

Bidding started at 1,000 Euros with an estimate of 1,000 to 1,500 Euros. The buyer's premium was 33%. There were other fees as well.

Ronald Searle
Invaluable item description

Searle's 1974 watercolor L'Apéritif was published as a postcard in 1977. Here's an example of both printed sides, as found on eBay:

L'Apéritif was later included in Ronald Searle's Big Fat Cat Book (1982). No home should be without a copy.

The present work is from the collection of Yanou Collart, the well-connected publicist and actress. Or, as the auction house writes even more intriguingly, "Femme d'amour et femme d'affaires." 

https://www.hvmc.com/news-detail/32/yanou-collart-femme-d-amour-et-femme

Any friend of Sean Connery's is a friend of mine.

The lot was sold for the opening bid of 1,000 Euros:

05295

Ronald Searle's Complete Published Works?

Somebody did a very thorough job collecting the published books of Ronald Searle. Forum Auctions, which offered the set yesterday, called the approximately two hundred volumes "The Complete Works of Ronald Searle" to which I might add only "or very nearly" out of an abundance of caution.

But rather than quibble, let's pause to admire the condition of all these books in their lovely dust jackets, the inclusion of some different editions—English, American, French, German—and the books by various authors whom Searle illustrated.

In addition, at least three of the books were personally inscribed by Searle. The most impressive of these, no doubt, is David Arkell's copy of Ronald Searle's Big Fat Cat Book (1982) inscribed in October of that year to his long-time journalist friend with a classic Searle cat.

The London auction house's presale estimate was 6,000-8,000 GBP, with bidding starting at 5,000 GBP.

Ronald Searle
Forum Auctions listing accessed March 13, 2026

khttps://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/Searle-Ronald-.-Collection-of-the-Complete-Work-305-c-E975213429?utm_term=ronald%20searle&utm_source=alerts&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=keywordalerts&utm_content=430028&utm_term=430028

Ronald Searle

Forum Auctions item description

Alas, no sale.

April 12, 2026 Update:  These books failed to sell at auction and were subsequently listed on AbeBooks by Picture This Gallery of Sunningdale, UK, with additional images. On the one hand, the asking price is considerably greater than the high estimate at auction. On the other hand, there is no buyer's premium to contend with. It remains an extraordinary collection.

Ronald Searle
AbeBooks listing accessed April 12, 2026

https://www.abebooks.com/signed-first-edition/Complete-Collection-works-Ronald-Searle-almost/32419760686/bd

Ronald Searle
AbeBooks item description

05231

Ronald Searle: The Coming of the Great Cat God

The Coming of the Great Cat God is a 1968 color lithograph by Ronald Searle. It combines his popular cat imagery with one of those calamitous urban landscapes he was rendering at the time. A colossal smiling cat radiating garish colored light towers over the imposing cityscape and extends its right front paw downward. Terrified men in business suits jump from buildings and flee from the cat. It is not unusual for Searle's lithographs of this period to contrast elements from nature with an overbuilt urban landscape featuring panic-stricken inhabitants.

The Coming of the Great Cat God
Ronald Searle
Original lithograph no. 86/95, 1968
Gurlitt catalogue no. 34
EE cat. no. 94

Ronald Searle
Swann Galleries listing ended May 22, 2014

https://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/Lots/auction-lot/SEARLE-RONALD-The-Coming-of-the-Great-Cat-God-Color-lithogra?saleno=2351&lotNo=250&refNo=689681

The 1971 Galerie Wolfgang Gurlitt catalogue lists the four-color lithograph (no. 34) and two black-and-white exhibition posters (nos. 35 and 36) from 1968 made from the same plate.

The Gurlitt catalogue does not list a promotional poster for Editions Empreinte. The poster does not have Searle's signature or his distinctive writing, but it does attribute copyright to him in small printing at the bottom:

Ronald Searle
Quinn's Auction Galleries listing ended December 20, 2022

https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/roland-searle-lithograph-poster-1968-237-c-55d482cafe?objectID=176250941&algIndex=upcoming_lots_prod&queryID=5f78cbb9aa93f70f04630c19a515ee67

The color lithograph was included in Ronald Searle's Big Fat Cat Book (1982):

04428

Ronald Searle: A Catscape for the Cassés

Ronald Searle was born on this day in 1920. The prolific cartoonist was also an active printmaker; his long-time lithographer and friend was Michel Cassé of Paris. In September of 1978, Searle gave Michel and his wife Carmen a watercolor featuring a group of eleven fanciful cats. The drawing has never been published.

The cats occupy a plane patterned like a tablecloth or tiled floor. One of them stands on two legs with at least one hand improbably inserted in a pocket. A crescent moon hangs low in the sky.

Ronald Searle's signature

"pour Carmen
& Michel
Love
Ronald
Septembre 1978"

The artwork turned up on eBay last week. The seller was able to provided a thorough history and provenance.

Ronald Searle

eBay listing ended February 25, 2023

https://www.ebay.com/itm/266145183313?hash=item3df77d3651:g:AuMAAOSwSlhj98Ba&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAoA4YYB9WiDRSWWwsZC2BPqxxKXnRfuSX6RdmlN%2BdaSto%

2B8NhGYnIyNztwuowmjvaeRuPsgb4T4jBeqsvy4blbIbFQbfFoUk8T%2FBNmGSHkUVm0VU9Gf2meexSDqUUQzW%2FkDHjNdayH2nw5XWKk2WdXmu2jGU1LTewlTCSW5qnvXUHWmbwqmnCZnE%2BAwfYG4JeVyRwqa0w7ofrQRt2euPzywE%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR_rP1MnUYQ

Ronald Searle

eBay item description

Best offer of 2200 GBP not accepted.
Seller counteroffer of 2500 GBP accepted.

Searle himself might not have called this drawing a "catscape." He used the title only for a series of four cat lithographs published with Cassé in 1967, the year he published his seminal book Searle's Cats. These prints, particularly Catscape I and III, seem to be direct predecessors of the drawing Searle presented to the Cassés. Catscape I was issued in an edition of only 50 plus V artist's proofs.

Catscape I

No. 13/50, 1967

Ronald Searle

Ronald Searle
Euvrard & Fabre, Paris, June 19, 2020, Lot 252

https://www.euvrard-fabre.com/en/lot/106304/12734576-searle-ronald-19202011-cat-lan

Gurlitt (1971) No. 7

Catscape II is a different kind of grouping, more of an assemblage than a landscape, although the large cat's back does define a ground line of sorts.

Catscape II
No. 11/99, 1967
Ronald Searle

Anderson and Garland
Ronald Searle
Catscape II

https://www.andersonandgarland.com/auction/lot/1142-ronald-searle---cats-signed-and-dated/?lot=154092&sd=1

Gurlitt (1971) No. 15

A drawing similar to Catscape II graces the title page of Searle's Cats (1967).

Searle's Cats (1967 UK edition)
Title page

https://poulwebb.blogspot.com/2023/02/ronald-searle-part-17.html

Searle's Cats (1968 US edition)
Title page

https://www.abebooks.com/first-edition/SEARLES-CATS-SEARLE-Ronald-Stephen-Greene/13805997369/bd

The French edition used that same illustration on the cover, with color added.

De drôles de Chats (1967)

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=31155959907&searchurl=kn%3DSearle%2Bdroles%2Bde%2Bchats%26sortby%3D17&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-title3

The horizontal Catscape III is reoriented vertically to accommodate text for the Galerie La Pochade exhibition poster.

Catscape III variant

Lithographic poster for Galerie La Pochade

Edition of 100 unsigned proofs, 1967

Ronald Searle

https://www.mchampetier.com/Poster-Ronald-Searle-118356-work.html

Gurlitt (1971) Nos. 16 and 17

Catscape IV piles the cats on top of each other to a third level, but is otherwise not entirely unlike Catscape II. The edition size is now an impressive 150, but Searle would come to settle on 99 as his standard.

Catscape IV

Hors commerce aside from the edition of 150 plus XV artist's proofs, 1967

Ronald Searle

Ronald Searle
Catscape IV
Euvrard & Fabre, Paris, June 19, 2020, Lot 255

https://www.euvrard-fabre.com/en/lot/106304/12734579-searle-ronald-19202011-cat-famsearch=&

Gurlitt (1971) No. 19

Eight years later we find the first UK edition of More Cats (1975) has a similar vibe on its cover. Searle has refined his cats considerably, but he is still finding ways to fill space on a page with them in all their variety.

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=3102390500
8&searchurl=sortby%3D1%26tn%3Dcats%26an%3Dsearle%2
Bronald&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp3-_-image30

Displaced Persons is an exceptional work from the same year as the Cassé drawing. The cats, by 1978 at least, have a horizon line to fix them on a plane. That plane is tiled or patterned in the Cassé watercolor, but barren and endless here. The title makes it clear that Searle, even when drawing cats, has always been thinking about people.

Displaced Persons, 1978, postcard
Ronald Searle

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/185794445562?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D1110006%26algo%3

DHOMESPLICE.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20200818142055%26meid%3D0727819298314221bd7ceab9fe84c0a3%2

6pid%3D101113%26rk%3D4%26rkt%3D12%26sd%3D353833700334%26itm%3D185794445562%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3

D1%26pg%3D2047675%26algv%3DDefaultOrganicWebV9BertRefreshRanker&_trksid=p2047675.c101113.m2109

A detail scanned from a page of the Big Fat Cat Book gives us a better idea than the postcard of Searle's formidable technique.

Displaced Persons [detail, 1978]
Ronald Searle's Big Fat Cat Book (1982)

https://ukjarry.blogspot.com/2010/02/ronald-searle-3.html

Searle apparently abandoned the term catscape shortly after coming up with it. It still seems useful, though, for describing one type of drawing he excelled in: his cartoon cats covering either an undefined flat surface or a plane with a heavy horizon line. In an undated but clearly later drawing, Searle once again avoids using his invented word catscape in the title and settles for the rather bland Landscape with Figures. By this time, his cats have evolved in form once again, but they remain anything but bland.

Landscape with Figures

Ronald Searle

Collection of Robert L. and Lydia Forbes

Ronald Searle

Christie's, July 5, 2006, Lot 1083

https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-4754973

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