Le Chat Noir depicts Chichi, a black cat the artist cared for while staying in a friend's East Village apartment in New York. Inspired by Eugène Delacroix’s studies and paintings of big cats, the artist began with a series of charcoal sketches observing Chichi’s movements and personality. Based on a photograph taken during their time together, the portrait captures the cat’s expressive eyes, alert curiosity, and animated presence, bringing a sense of grandeur to a familiar domestic subject.
Framed: 30.0 x 34.0 x 3.0 in.
Signed
Shipping & Returns:
We are unable to ship to P.O. boxes.
Available until 4:00 PM, Nov 12, 2026.

About the artist:

Matthew Tully Dugan (b. 1986) is a Multi-disciplinary Artist living and working in downtown NYC for 12+ years focusing on installation and process-based practices ranging from 15th century technical research of renaissance painting systems to twitch livestreaming and conceptual/critical art writing and poetry. Alongside these endeavors Dugan has developed an intensive French culinary practice based on traditional methods outlined by Marie-Antoine Carême and Auguste Escoffier - the immersive practice is both a performance and an all-encompassing sculptural reinterpretation of a fictionalized fine dining experience. In 2026 Dugan began another ongoing work "Gothic Bakery" which centers around traditional bread making. As a printmaker Dugan has spent over 8 years experimenting extensively with large scale silkscreen works on both canvas and metal using industrial grade inks and curing processes with a particular conceptual interest in imagery involving American supermodel Kendall Jenner as both a stand-in for himself through appropriative self-portraiture and as a foundational structure upon which he considers socio-cultural theses through philosophical, academic and empirical essays. Dugan is a self-taught artist with a background in Industrial Contracting and historic architectural restoration, most notably the restoration of the Gothic Bridge in Central Park, NYC (2024).

Recent exhibitions include solo shows at One Trick Pony, LA (2024) Lomex, NY (2023), Will Shott, NY (2023), 56 Henry, New York (2022), as well as a public work in collaboration with Half Gallery, NY (2023). Group exhibitions include Karma, Thomaston Maine (2025), Alex Berns, New York (2025) The Ranch, Montauk, NY (2023), Will Shott, NY (2023), M+B, Los Angeles (2023), Fragment Gallery, NY (2022) Tik Tack, Antwerp, Berlin (2022), Gallery Albany, NY (2022) 56 Henry, New York, NY (2021), and Galerie A.M.180 Prague, Czech Republic via Gern en Regalia, New York, NY (2021). Dugan also runs an independent curatorial program, Art Death.

Specs:

34 inches
30 inches
3 inches
30 inches
with frame
34 inches
30 inches
3 inches
30 inches
Matthew Tully Dugan:
Le Chat Noir, 2025
Oil on linen in modified 19th c. frame
30.0 × 34.0 inches /