My Wife's Lovers is an 1891 painting by Austrian artist
Carl Kahler depicting forty-two
Turkish Angora cats belonging to American millionaire Kate Birdsall Johnson. Not having painted cats before, Kahler spent three years studying cat poses and learning their habits. At the center of the painting sits Sultan, bought by Johnson during a trip to Paris. She lent the painting to the 1893
Chicago World's Fair and, following her death, it was acquired by Ernest Haquette for his Palace of Art Salon in
San Francisco. Kahler died in the
1906 San Francisco earthquake, and the salon where the painting was hung was destroyed, but the picture survived. It was sold at
Sotheby's in 2015 to a private buyer from California.
Painting credit: Carl Kahler