Carl Kahler

Carl Kahler (also spelled Karl Kahler; 12 September 1856 or 1855 – 18 April 1906) was an Austrian painter of genre scenes, landscapes, racehorse subjects and animal portraiture, particularly known for paintings of cats. His painting My Wife's Lovers, a large composition of forty-two cats, became widely reproduced and is the work for which he is best known.

Biography

Early life and education Kahler was born in Linz, and some sources give his year of birth as 1855 while Austrian records commonly list 1856. He enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich on 19 October 1874, studying under Ludwig von Löfftz and Wilhelm Lindenschmit the Younger. After completing his studies in Munich he pursued further training in Paris and is reported to have worked for a period in Italy.

Career in Europe Kahler exhibited in major German-speaking centres in the 1880s, including Berlin, Munich, Dresden and Vienna. He produced genre pictures, portraiture and early animal subjects, and became known for polished academic technique and carefully staged interior compositions.

He left Australia in 1890, spent time in New Zealand, and later emigrated to the United States.

Kahler exhibited with the San Francisco Art Association during the 1890s and showed at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. His works are relatively uncommon in the art market. He died in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake on 18 April 1906.

Selected works