Two Children with a Cat

Judith Leyster painted this in Haarlem around 1629, when she was about 20 and still four years away from joining the city's painters' guild as a master. Laughing, playing children were a popular subject in Haarlem at the time, and she handled it with loose, quick brushwork that keeps the whole scene moving. Two children in bright festive clothes are squealing with laughter. The older boy holds a young cat in his arm and snatches a treat from under its nose, while keeping the animal out of reach of the smaller child's grabbing hands. The painting belongs to a private collection and is on loan to the Rijksmuseum, one of only a few dozen pictures by Leyster known today.