Style Imitating Art | “Katzensymphonie” by Moritz von Schwind

I hope you all had a magical Halloween weekend! We sure did. I will share some highlights at the end of the week. But for now, let’s learn about some art and how it inspired our black cat themed outfits, purr-fect for Halloween and the kick off of November!

About Style Imitating Art

Style Imitating Art is hosted by Salazar of 14 Shades of Grey, Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge, and Marsha of Marsha in the Middle. Style Imitating Art challenges us to draw style inspiration from pieces of art. Every other Monday, one of the hosts, acting as presenter, selects an inspiration image that they will each post on their blogs. The following Monday, each host shares her art inspired outfit. Participants are invited to submit their art inspired outfits to the presenter by 10:00 p.m. EST on the Tuesday following the hosts’ art inspired outfit posts. The following day, Wednesday, the presenter will share all of the submissions on her blog.

You don’t have to be a blogger to join either! In fact, you don’t even have to join but you can still use the art to inspire an outfit just for the sake of trying something different. If you want to share your inspired outfit, we invite you do so on Instagram or any other social media platform that you prefer. Just be sure to tag Salazar, Shelbee, or Marsha or use #TeamLOTSStyle and #StyleImitatingArt so the hosts know you have joined. Go have some fun in your closets and join the SIA challenge next week!

This Week’s Presenter

Salazar chose this week’s artwork. Since we are in the season of Halloween, she wanted to choose something Halloween-related without being too obvious. This 1868 painting featuring black cats on sheet music by Austrian artist Moritz von Schwind fits the bill. Let’s learn some more about it!

The Artwork

Katzensymphonie, or “The Cat Symphony” by Moritz von Schwind

About the Artist: Moritz von Schwind

One of six sons born to an imperial knight, Moritz von Schwind entered the world on January on 21, 1804, in Vienna, Austria. During his carefree childhood in Vienna, Moritz received some basic art training and began to draw his inspiration from chivalry, folklore, and the music of his people. One of his friends was Austrian composer Franz Schubert, whose songs Schwind would illustrate. After Schubert died in 1828, Moritz moved to Munich, Germany, where he befriended German painter Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld and received guidance from Peter von Cornelius, painter and director of the Düsseldorf Academy.

In 1834, Schwind was commissioned by King Ludwig I of Bavaria to decorate the walls of his new palace with illustrations inspired by the poems of German writer Ludwig Tieck. During his time in Germany, Schwind earned his living by working on almanacs and illustrating the works of writers like Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Gaining considerable recognition for his poetically fanciful works, Schwind’s art contributed heavily to the art revival in Germany.

In 1839, he began work on frescoes inspired by Goethe for the new Karlsruhe academy. He also decorated a Leipzig villa with the story of Cupid and Psyche and created designs inspired by the Niebelungenlied and Tasso‘s Gerusalemme for the walls of the Bavarian castle Hohenschwangau. The following year, in 1840, Schwind visited Karlsruhe, where he met his future wife Luise Sachs, the daughter of an officer. One son and five daughters were born of this marriage, but only three of the children survived into adulthood.

Schwind moved to Frankfurt in 1844, which marked the time that he created some of his most notable easel paintings. He also continued doing Goethe inspired pieces, illustrated numerous books, and was a skilled violinist. He returned to Munich in 1847 after being appointed professor at the academy. His fame reached its height in 1855 after he completed a series of illustrative wall pictures in the castle of the Wartburg. While living in Munich, Moritz worked on churches including the altar and windows of the Church of Our Lady as well as painted glass designs for Glasgow Cathedral in Scotland.

Toward the end of his career and in declining health, Schwind visited Vienna where he created musically inspired designs for the foyer of the Vienna State Opera. His friend Cornelius wrote of this particular work, “You have translated the joy of music into pictorial art.”

Moritz von Schwind died on February 8, 1871, in Pöcking, Bavaria, at the age of 67. He is buried in the Alter Südfriedhof in Munich.

About the Art: “Katzensymphonie” (“The Cat Symphony”)

“Katzensymphonie” (or “The Cat Symphony”) is an 1868 drawing by Moritz von Schwind, using pencil, brown pen, and brown brush on paper that measures 12.44 in. x 9.84 in. (31.6 cm x 25 cm). This work is currently housed at the Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe in Germany.

Schwind created his “Cat Symphony” as a gift for his friend and violinist Joseph Joachim in celebration of his recent appointment as the director of Berlin’s Hochschule für Musik. There is a bit of a German joke infused into the “Katzensymphonie” as the term Katzenmusik is used to describe an unpleasant noise. In Schwind’s drawing, the cats climb, tumble, and even take naps across the stave and clef lines, producing a violin sonata in 3/4 and 12/8 time, that Joseph Joachim was incapable of playing. In a January 19, 1869, letter to poet and pastor Edward Mörike, Schwind teases Joachim for his inability to play the Wagnerian Katzensymphonie,

“I have become a musician, a musician of the future in the second higher degree. Away with the old, stiff, dry staff! Outdated, outdated, outdated stuff — I need a new, spiritualized, lively means of expression for my new, unimagined thoughts — whether it’s sounds, images or the devil knows what, it doesn’t matter — I have achieved the unbelievable. The enclosed sonata, dedicated to Mr Joachim, is a telling proof. He confesses that he is incapable of playing it — this wizard on the violin!”

-Mortiz von Schwind

Helpful Links:

• Sheet Mewsic: Moritz von Schwind’s Katzensymphonie (1868)
• Google Arts & Culture: The Cat Symphony
• Wikipedia: Moritz von Schwind
• Lempertz: Moritz von Schwind
• Meisterdrucke: Moritz Ludwig von Schwind

About My Outfit

As soon as I saw all of these adorably playful black cats dancing, scampering, and sleeping on the lines of the sheet music, I knew I was going to wear this white tee shirt with the black cats hiding in the striped pattern. I have had this tee shirt for many years and have only worn it a few times but never shared it here. I paired it with some crocheted pieces because the open knit of crochet just felt very airy and musical. The black crocheted skirt is so old that I cannot remember where or when it came from and I don’t think I have ever shared it here either.

My beige crocheted cardigan is also making its first appearance here despite having it worn it many times in the last few months since I thrifted it. I actually picked up this cardigan when I was shopping for preloved crocheted items for our May Thrifty Six challenge, Crochet Revival, but I wore a different crocheted sweater for that prompt.

To complete this outfit, I wore my black floppy felt hat and my black lace up wedding boots because they felt like accurate representations for the 1860s, the era when this art was created. I wore all preloved jewelry in various wood tones to bring in some shades of brown that reflect the sepia color of the sheet music paper.

This outfit came together mush easier than I had anticipated and I really loved the outcome. It is not as colorful as I usually dress these days, but it still felt pretty purr-fectly me!

Before I go, I have to share some photos of my black cats, Dave (10 years old) and Ozzy (6 months old).

And here is a cat family photo which also includes Frank (the black and white cow print cat, age 10) and Penny (the gray tuxedo cat, age 7 months).

I hope you have enjoyed my black cat inspired outfit! Be sure to check out how Salazar and Marsha have styled this whimsical drawing. If you would like to participate in this Style Imitating Art challenge and have your outfit included in Salazar’s round up post on Wednesday, November 5, 2025, please be sure to send your photos to her at 14shadesofgreyblog@gmail.com by Tuesday, November 4, 2025, by 10:00 p.m. EST.

I am excited to see what you all style!

Keeping it catty on the edge,

Shelbee