Born in 1881 in Paris to a family of musicians, the artist and sculptor Jacques Lehmann Nam began to draw at a young age especially focusing on his parent’s cats. In 1898, he entered the school of Beaux Arts and became an apprentice to Louis-Léon Gérome. Because of his interest in drawing animals, he frequently visited the Jardin zoologigue d’Anvers. In order to make a living, at 19 he started drawing amusing political caricatures as well as other illustrations for the magazines Le Rire, Le Sourire, Le Bon Vivant and many others. He became acquainted with the cat loving French author Colette and in 1929 illustrated her book, Sept dialogues de bȇtes (Seven Dialogues with Animals). In 1935, he illustrated Colette’s book, Chats. Ever the cat lover, in 1960 he wrote and published Eux mes Chats, a book of 45 poems with 70 illustrations. Many of Nam’s works feature tigers, lions, leopards and panthers, in addition to the domestic cat, and even though Nam was well known as an animal artist in general, he said, “I like the felines best. Take, for example, a tiger. Reclining, his eyes half closed, you think he will keep his pose? He has already crossed his paws the other way around.”
Nam, a specialist in cat portraits, produced a lacquered painting of a poised and sophisticated Mikette in 1924
At the age of 90, in 1971, he participated in a London exhibition featuring his own cat works as well as those of the cat loving Théophile Steinlein.
Study of Two Cats
Study of Two Cats (2)
Cat Sketch
Cat Sketch (2)
Two Siamese Cats
Crouching Cat
Study of Two White Cats
Study of Cats
Chat couché
Chat assis
Chat gris couche de cote
Cat Love
Deux chats couche
Deux chats allonges
Sleeping Cat
Chatte Blanche, White Cat
1935-1940
Chat Endormi
Chat tigré couché
Tiger Cat Sleeping
The White Cat
Watercolor and gouache
Chat Couche
Deux chats
Deux chats couchés
White and Gray Cats
Chats sur un muret
Two Cats Black and White
White and Brown Cat
Un chat blanc et deux siamois
One White Cat and Two Siamese
Three Cats
Three Siamese Cats
White and Ginger Cat
White Sleeping Cat
Cat and Kittens
Chat endormi dans son panier
Two Siamese Cats
Contented White Cat
Fastagette chatte blanche
White Cat
Chat blanc endormi
Siamese Cat
1920
Brown cat
Three Cats
Batifolage félin
Cat in a Tree
Le Chartreux
Two cats on wood
Chat siamois au vase de tulipes
Chat siamois dans un fauteuil
1945
Deux chats siamois
1925-1930
Two Black Cats
1920-1925
Le Chat et son ombre (The cat and his shadow), c. 1935-40
Le chat noir et le chat blanc
1920-1925
1921
Cunayou chat appartenant à lartiste
1930
Chat siamois appartenant à lartiste couché devant une tête de boudha Khmer
1930
Le Petit indochinois au chat blanc
Capucin et Adimah
1950
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One of favorites! Cats are simplified in lines and beauty showing just the essence of the cat. So few long hair cats! Angular lines that seem to curve.