Untitled, from 25 Cats Name[d] Sam and One Blue Pussy by Andy Warhol

Offset lithograph, circa 1954, on wove paper, with the Estate of Andy Warhol and the Warhol Foundation ink stamps on the reverse, 49.1 x 34.2 cm. (19¼ x 13½ in.)

‘25 cats name[d] Sam, and One Blue Pussy’, circa 1954, was one of Warhol’s first illustrated bound books. Produced with Seymour Berlin of Record Offset Corporation in New York and written by Charles Lionsby, Warhol illustrated 25 cats name[d] Sam, and One Blue Pussy with sixteen drawings of cats, each named Sam, and a seventeenth captioned ‘One Blue Pussy’. The blotted line technique used by Warhol effortlessly articulates the fur coats and expressive faces of the animals.

Warhol created his bound books to promote his commercial illustrations, sending them out to prospective clients. One such recipient, Diana Vreeland, then fashion editor for Harper’s Bazaar and later Vogue, found her copy of Warhol’s 25 cats name[d] Sam, and one blue pussy, to be ‘Charming!’