Chiura Obata: Watercolor Painting of a Sleeping Tabby Cat from the Back

View from the back of a curled-up, sleeping tabby cat, its ears relaxed and head facing away from the viewer. Obata has used fine, dry brushstrokes at he edges of the cat’s body to indicate the fur, and a wet brush technique for most of the body.  Obata’s mastery of the brush was so complete that he could paint in many different styles, all of them unique to his experience and training. In addition to painting landscapes, flower arrangements and still lifes, Obata also painted dogs, fish, zoo animals (including ostriches) and horses; he would take every opportunity to capture the world around him.  There are only a few known extant watercolors of domestic cats. As Obata himself wrote “...if the artist is full of individuality, the product is also full of individuality, and it is a true artwork.” (See page 127 of Chiura Obata: An American Modern). 

Obata’s economy of line and mastery of the brush are practically unequalled in 20th c. American art. He influenced a generation of California artists, and at his own count taught more than 10,000 students, teaching at Berkeley between 1932 and 1954. The University of California, Berkeley preserved many of his paintings and sketches while Obata and his family were interned in Utah during WWII. The most recent exhibition of Obata’s work ran for the first half of 2024 at SFMOMA.

Provenance: Estate of Chiura Obata. With a certificate of authenticity from the estate of the artist.

Signed: Chiura Obata, with artist's red seal and date of July 11th (?) 1938