
Via two of my favourite internet caretakers,
Everlasting Blört and
Fancy Notions, we are introduced to a very niche and delightful trope in still life paintings:
cats stealing food. All the posts in this thread are terrific but we were especially impressed by this work by Dutch Baroque artist Abraham Hendriksz van Beijeren (
previously), a virtuoso of the category of pronkstillevens—that sumptuous portrayals of luxury goods, particularly of fish—for the cat’s obvious and feline lack of remorse. See a whole gallery at the link above.