THE ECCENTRIC STORY BEHIND HISTORY’S MOST FABULOUS PAINTING

Carl Kahler’s 1891 painting My Wife’s Lovers might just be the most magnificent feline portrait in art history—and the story behind it is every bit as wild as the whiskers on its subjects.

Commissioned by San Francisco millionaire and devoted cat lover Kate Birdsall Johnson, the painting features 42 cats, most of them pampered Angoras, arranged in a lush, silk-draped tableau. Some are playing, others lounging, while the star—Sultan, a striking green-eyed cat—sits proudly at the center. Johnson reportedly bought him for $3,000 on a trip to Paris. The painting’s title, My Wife’s Lovers, was a nickname Johnson’s late husband gave her cats.

At six feet tall and over eight feet wide, the painting is as grand as it is quirky. Kahler, who had never painted a cat before, spent three years living at Johnson’s estate, Buena Vista Castle, studying each cat’s personality. Her home housed not just cats, but also dogs, horses, cattle, and even parrots—with the cats rumored to occupy an entire floor of the 40-room mansion.

Despite the extravagance, Johnson was also known for her philanthropy. Upon her death in 1893, she left most of her fortune to a hospital for poor women and children, not the cats—though legend suggests otherwise.

Kahler received $5,000 for the work (around $170,000 today), and the painting debuted to acclaim at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. After Johnson’s death, it changed hands several times and survived the devastating 1906 San Francisco earthquake, which claimed Kahler’s life and destroyed much of the city.

Over the decades, the painting toured the U.S., appeared at Madison Square Garden, and was dubbed “the world’s greatest painting of cats” by Cat Magazine in 1949. In 2016, My Wife’s Lovers made headlines again when it sold at Sotheby’s for $826,000—more than double its estimated value. That’s about $19,667 per cat.

Today, it resides in Northern California with private collectors John and Heather Mozart, though its online fame lives on through the hashtag #meowsterpiece. With its mix of eccentric history, lavish detail, and sheer feline fabulousness, My Wife’s Lovers remains a true celebration of cat devotion—one purrfect portrait at a time.