Deux chats couchés sur un canapé 1896

Théophile Alexandre Steinlen painted "Deux chats couchés sur un canapé" using oil on canvas, employing painterly strokes to capture a domestic scene. The material qualities of oil paint—its viscosity and luminosity—are crucial to the work's effect. You can see the texture built up by the artist's hand. This materiality also connects to the broader social context of art production. Oil paint, by the late 19th century, was commercially produced and widely accessible, a departure from earlier eras when artists often ground their own pigments. Steinlen's loose brushwork and choice of subject – cats relaxing on a couch – suggest a deliberate move away from academic painting. Instead, it embraces the immediacy and everyday life, reflecting the rise of impressionism and a shift towards more democratic subject matter. Thinking about "Deux chats couchés sur un canapé" through its materials and making allows us to see it not just as a representation, but as a product of its time, shaped by industrialization, changing artistic values, and the quiet observation of modern life.