© Edward Wolfe estate

Wolfe was alternately labelled both an ‘English Gauguin’ and an ‘English Matisse’, typically setting his figures against a vibrant backdrop within a highly coloured, patterned interior. His Nude with Cat employs a characteristically bold Fauve palette of predominantly mauves, blues, and yellows, also partly reflected in the skin tones of his standing female model; the cat curled at her feet may be a sly sexual innuendo. The artist can just be glimpsed, seated, at work and in profile, in the mirror behind her.