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.
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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.
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| Ronald Searle's signature |
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| "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.
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 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.
The French edition used that same illustration on the cover, with color added.
The horizontal Catscape III is reoriented vertically to accommodate text for the Galerie La Pochade exhibition poster.
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.
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.
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Ronald Searle eBay listing ended February 25, 2023 |
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Ronald Searle eBay item description |
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| 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.
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Catscape I No. 13/50, 1967 Ronald Searle |
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| Ronald Searle Euvrard & Fabre, Paris, June 19, 2020, Lot 252 |
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| Gurlitt (1971) No. 7 |
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| Catscape II No. 11/99, 1967 Ronald Searle |
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| Anderson and Garland Ronald Searle Catscape II |
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| Gurlitt (1971) No. 15 |
A drawing similar to Catscape II graces the title page of Searle's Cats (1967).
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| Searle's Cats (1967 UK edition) Title page |
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| 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.
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| De drôles de Chats (1967) |
The horizontal Catscape III is reoriented vertically to accommodate text for the Galerie La Pochade exhibition poster.
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Catscape III variant Lithographic poster for Galerie La Pochade Edition of 100 unsigned proofs, 1967 Ronald Searle |
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| Gurlitt (1971) Nos. 16 and 17 |
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Catscape IV Hors commerce aside from the edition of 150 plus XV artist's proofs, 1967 Ronald Searle |
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| Ronald Searle Catscape IV Euvrard & Fabre, Paris, June 19, 2020, Lot 255 |
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| 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.
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.
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| Displaced Persons, 1978, postcard Ronald Searle |
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| Displaced Persons [detail, 1978] Ronald Searle's Big Fat Cat Book (1982) |
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.
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Landscape with Figures Ronald Searle Collection of Robert L. and Lydia Forbes |
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Ronald Searle Christie's, July 5, 2006, Lot 1083 |
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