Andy Warhol
Cats and Dogs (Cecil), 1976
Synthetic polymer paint and silkscreen ink on canvas
15 x 19 in
(38.1 x 48.3 cm)
(38.1 x 48.3 cm)
Stamped by The Estate of Andy Warhol and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc., and numbered PA27.037 (on the reverse) As legend has it, a taxidermized Great...
Stamped by The Estate of Andy Warhol and
The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc., and numbered PA27.037 (on the reverse)
As legend has it, a taxidermized Great Dane named Cecil, portrait above, stood guard at The Factory’s entrance from 1969-1987. Andy Warhol collected taxidermy of all kinds and purchased Cecil for $390 in the late 1960s from an antique dealer who claimed that the dog had once been owned by Hollywood movie mogul, Cecil B DeMille. Cecil’s real name was Ador Tipp Topp, a dog born in Germany in 1921 and purchased by an American who entered him in many competitions, including Westminster where he won a blue ribbon. Cecil had been a multiribbon show champion, and upon his death in 1929, he was stuffed as part of Dog Hall of Fame at Yale University's Peabody Museum which closed in 1964. By the 1960s, the collection had been relocated to storage, and Ador’s remains were sold to Yale drama students for 10 dollars. The dog eventually passed on to an antiques dealer, who made the claim about filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille - Warhol believed the story and the rest is Warhol history. The above painting is a portrait of Warhol’s Great Dane.
The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc., and numbered PA27.037 (on the reverse)
As legend has it, a taxidermized Great Dane named Cecil, portrait above, stood guard at The Factory’s entrance from 1969-1987. Andy Warhol collected taxidermy of all kinds and purchased Cecil for $390 in the late 1960s from an antique dealer who claimed that the dog had once been owned by Hollywood movie mogul, Cecil B DeMille. Cecil’s real name was Ador Tipp Topp, a dog born in Germany in 1921 and purchased by an American who entered him in many competitions, including Westminster where he won a blue ribbon. Cecil had been a multiribbon show champion, and upon his death in 1929, he was stuffed as part of Dog Hall of Fame at Yale University's Peabody Museum which closed in 1964. By the 1960s, the collection had been relocated to storage, and Ador’s remains were sold to Yale drama students for 10 dollars. The dog eventually passed on to an antiques dealer, who made the claim about filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille - Warhol believed the story and the rest is Warhol history. The above painting is a portrait of Warhol’s Great Dane.
Provenance
Private Collection, EuropeSkarstedt Gallery, New York
Private Collection, Greece
Literature
G. Frei and N. Printz, eds., The Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonné: Volume 5 (1976-1978), New York, Phaidon Press, 2018, Cat. No. 3255, illustrated in color.