Gwen John acquired her first cat in 1904. It was a tortoiseshell cat that she named Edgar Quinet after the street in which she was living. She frequently captured her adored cats in spontaneous drawings. Gwen John wrote about one of her cats: ‘she is very important, perhaps the most important thing but that ought not to be, n’est pas?’. Edgar Quinet disappeared in 1908, John was devastated and even wrote a poem about her loss.