Yo Laur artwork • painting • previously for sale Three kittens playing

Born and educated in Paris, the French Marie-Yvonne 'Yo' Laur was an accomplished genre painter, specializing in the portraiture of cats. She exhibited several times in the French capital at the Salon des Artistes Français, of which she became a member in 1908. In 1903 or 1905 she received an honorable award for her entry. Paintings of pets, cats and dogs in particular, were in high demand in the second half of the 19th century and the decades after. Many painters specialized in it, including a striking number of women. In the Netherlands Henriëtte Ronner-Knip was very successful with her cat paintings.