JACQUES LEHMANN

Jacques Lehmann, generally known as Nam (1881-1974), ranks among the best animaliers of the first half of the twentieth century. Working principally on paper in his youth, lacquer became the artist’s preferred medium in the early nineteen-twenties. In this decorative panel, Nam married his favourite technique of the time with his life-long love of cats. "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 immortalized cats in many book illustrations, among them Sept dialogues de bêtes (1929) by Colette, as well as the children’s story Les aventures d’Alicindor et Boullot (1933) by Claude Sylvain, and the novel Les civilisés (1921) by Claude Farrère. For his achievements as an animal painter, he received the Gold Medal at the 1925 Paris Éxposition des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Moderns and in 1926 was made chevalier of the prestigious Légion d’honneur.