Plethora of Cats Study #450

THE ROAD TO 392 CATS

When I first met Audrey Geisel in 1996, she told me about the canvas Ted kept on his easel for several years. A Plethora of Cats was his creative sanctuary, a work he would turn to at night after shutting down his children's book studio for the day. She remembers him contemplatively standing at the easel, rocking back and forth and adding cat's in what appeared to be an almost meditative exercise. Ted ultimately ended the painting with 392 technicolor cats. Paint, rock-back, step-in and repeat.

I was under the impression this was a spontaneous act of creativity, and that somehow he managed to turn it into one of the most complex paintings he ever made. It struck me as perhaps the finest and most iconic painting in the entire collection, so Audrey and I decided it would accompany The Indistinet Cot as the first release in The Art of Dr. Seuss Collection.

However, nearly 10 years after my first meeting with Audrey, I was rummaging through his now famous hidden closet of rare hats and artwork and found an additional collection of artworks I had never seen.

In stunned silence, I found myself face-to-face with the concept drawing that started it all - the original incarnation of A Plethora of Cats.

ROBERT CHASE, JR.

Publisher, The Art of Dr. Seuss Collection