Cat Cabinet face Amsterdam-Photo by Pejman Akbarzadeh Persian Dutch Network

The KattenKabinet ("Cat Cabinet") is an art museum in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

devoted to works depicting

cat The cat (''Felis catus''), also referred to as the domestic cat or house cat, is a small domesticated carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species of the family Felidae. Advances in archaeology and genetics have shown that the ...

s. The museum collection includes paintings, drawings, sculptures and other works of art by

Pablo Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...

Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (; ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), mononymously known as Rembrandt was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker, and Drawing, draughtsman. He is generally considered one of the greatest visual artists in ...

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Count, ''Comte'' Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa (24 November 1864 – 9 September 1901), known as Toulouse-Lautrec (), was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman, caricaturist, and illustrator whose immersion in the colour ...

Corneille Pierre Corneille (; ; 6 June 1606 – 1 October 1684) was a French tragedian. He is generally considered one of the three great 17th-century French dramatists, along with Molière and Racine. As a young man, he earned the valuable patronage o ...

, Sal Meijer,

Théophile Steinlen Théophile Alexandre Steinlen (November 10, 1859 – December 13, 1923), was a Swiss-born French Art Nouveau painter and printmaker. He was politically engaged and collaborated with the anarchist and socialist press. Biography Born in Lausanne ...

Ed van der Elsken Eduard van der Elsken (10 March 1925 – 28 December 1990) was a Dutch photographer and filmmaker. His imagery provides quotidian, intimate and autobiographic perspectives on the European zeitgeist spanning the period of the Second World War i ...

and

Jože Ciuha Jože Ciuha (26 April 1924 – 12 April 2015) was a Slovenian painter. Biography Jože Ciuha was born in Trbovlje. In 1950 he graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana. During his career he traveled extensively, his artistic style in ...

, among others. The museum is housed in a canalside building at

Herengracht The Herengracht () is the second of four Amsterdam canals belonging to the canal belt and lies between the Singel and the Keizersgracht. The Gouden Bocht (Golden Bend) in particular is known for its large and beautiful canal houses. History Th ...

497, in the grand ''

Gouden Bocht The Gouden Bocht (English: "Golden Bend") is the most prestigious part of the Herengracht in Amsterdam, Netherlands, between Leidsestraat and Vijzelstraat. Until 1663 the Herengracht reached as far as the present Leidsegracht. From that year o ...

'' ("Golden Bend") of this canal. The owner lives on the second floor of the building with his family. There are some cats in the museum as well.

History

The house and the adjacent building at Herengracht 499 were built in 1667 for the patrician brothers Willem and Adriaen van Loon. Through the luck of the draw, Willem was given the house at number 497. Later, the house was inhabited by Amsterdam mayor Jan Calkoen and Amsterdam pensionary

Engelbert François van Berckel Engelbert François van Berckel (Rotterdam, 8 October 1726 – Amsterdam, 30 March 1796) was a Dutch politician and pensionary of Amsterdam during the ''Patriottentijd''. Personal life Van Berckel was the son of Engelbert van Berckel, a ''bewindh ...

, among others.

John Adams John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before Presidency of John Adams, his presidency, he was a leader of ...

visited Van Berckel at the house during his time as U.S. ambassador to the Dutch republic. In 1985, the building was restored, and in 1990 the museum was founded by Bob Meijer in memory of his red tomcat John Pierpont Morgan (named after the American banker

J. P. Morgan John Pierpont Morgan Sr. (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier and investment banker who dominated corporate finance on Wall Street throughout the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. As the head of the banking firm that ...

). The museum served as filming location for ''

Ocean's Twelve ''Ocean's Twelve'' is a 2004 heist comedy film directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by George Nolfi. Serving as the second installment in the ''Ocean's'' film trilogy, it is a direct sequel to ''Ocean's Eleven'' (2001). The film feature ...

'' in 2004.

References

External links

Website of the KattenKabinet
{{Cat themed museums and galleries Museums in Amsterdam Cats in art Museums established in 1990 Art museums and galleries in the Netherlands 1990 establishments in the Netherlands Cats in popular culture 20th-century architecture in the Netherlands