Twee kinderen met een kat

Leyster's Twee kinderen met een kat (Two Children with a Cat, 1630), now in the Rijksmuseum, depicts a scene of childhood play — two young children teasing or tending to a cat — with the warm, intimate observation of childhood that she brought to her domestic interiors. Children with animals were a popular subject in Dutch genre painting, combining the appeal of childhood innocence with the formal interest of animal observation. Leyster gives the children a psychological reality — their concentration on the cat, their individual expressions — that makes this more than a conventional charm piece.

The intimate scale and warm light suit the domestic subject. Leyster models the children's faces with the same direct observation she brings to her adult figures. The cat's fur texture is rendered with careful attention while the children's soft skin and simple clothing are differentiated with skill. Light falls naturally from a single source.