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.