By all accounts, Meingast was fond of animals.
In 1910 or 1911, he adopted two kittens. Dr. Marie de Besombes (a librarian at the BNF) thinks there’s a good chance that the curious cats in this photo are Meingast’s cats Hamilcar and Hasdrubal.
de Besombes also said that Meingast had some pet roosters as a teenager (he kept them at his grandparents’ country house, apparently). Didn’t he enjoy sketching “rustic” scenes? Does anyone know whether he ever sketched his pet roosters Adherbal, Hiempsal, and Jugurtha?
This painting was believed to be hanging in Meingast’s study in Graz. Whether it was painted by Meingast himself remains to be known. Some students report that Meingast took it down, setting it on the floor next to his Recamier in 1902 and, in 1905, removed it from his office entirely.