Two Children with a Cat

Another version of Two Children with a Cat demonstrates the popularity of this domestic subject in Leyster's work. The tender interaction between children and animals was a favored motif in Dutch genre painting, appealing to the culture's emphasis on family and domestic virtue. Leyster's images of children are among the warmest in the Dutch Golden Age, capturing natural poses and expressions with the same confident brushwork she brought to adult subjects. Working in Haarlem in the 1630s, she ...

The animated expressions and natural gestures are rendered with Leyster's confident, fluid technique, the warm lighting creating an intimate atmosphere of childhood pleasure.