In the 20th century, animal shelters evolved into places where animals were rescued for potential adoption, offering them a chance to embark on a new life.

One notable example is the renowned Poezenboot (Cat Boat) in Amsterdam.

🎥 Beeld en Geluid, 1978

Credits:
🖋️ Unknown artist, 18th century
🏛️ Dierenmuseum

🖋️ T. Verrijk, 18th century
🏛️ NL Archives

The history of cats isn’t always pleasant. In the 18th and 19th centuries, ‘cat clubbing’—beating a barrel with a cat inside—was common entertainment. Though banned in cities, people, including the upper class, still gathered outside Amsterdam to watch. It remained popular until the late 1800s.

Ouch, that’s less tender

A cat nurses her kittens — and a baby rabbit. A tender act of natural inclusivity. 1971, the Netherlands, West-Brabant Archives, The Netherlands

A Hungry Cat (null) by Eulalie Osgood Grover, from Kittens and Cats; a Book of Tales.

Source: @nypl.bsky.social / Internet Archive

https://pdimagearchive.org/images/ad16e241-2dc3-450d-97a2-c308ffda7c7e

#table-settings #animals #cats #tea #collars #teacups #art #publicdomain

Picasso’s Cat Catching a Bird (1939) may seem simple, but many see it as a symbol of war. Painted as fascism rose in Europe, the violent cat and struggling bird conjure conflict and fear. Picasso said war shaped his art. In a later painting, the bird lies dead.

Purfection.
1939, most probably Hungary, Fortepan archives

This picture is also in a book my dad gave me, it's called The Life, History, and Magic of the Cat. On the opposite page is this picture of the photographer.

No way!! If there is an error with the date, then the national archive has some explaining to do 😂

When you can’t find anything good on Netflix and need something else to watch …

📷 1960, Donegal, Ireland, photographed by Denis Tynan, National Library of Ireland

In September 1919, Escher moved to Haarlem to study architecture. His landlady in Haarlem gifted Escher a white cat, who stayed his pet and companion during his student years. Escher lovingly portrayed his cat in several wood cuts.

Etches of a white cat by M.C. Escher

Photographic art, probably from the 1970s or early 80s. National archive, The Netherlands

Gabriel Metsu depicted genre scenes featuring cats with evident delight. In contrast to many other 17th-century paintings featuring cats, Metsu did not put the playful antics of cats centre stage, but tender moments, with cats about to jump on a woman's lap or affectionately sitting at her feet.

During the medieval period, Christian monks frequently had feline companions. They often walked over manuscripts, but seldom did they dip their paws in ink before doing so, as seen in this Croatian manuscript.

📜 Manuscript, 15th century. Photo: Emir O. Filipovi

🎨 Filippo Balbi, 1855

In Dutch, ‘having a tomcat’ means having a hangover - likely from German roots linking tomcats to drinking. In Jan Steen’s 17th-c. paintings, cats often appear in chaotic, drunken scenes, either as victims or sneaky bystanders eyeing leftovers.

🎨 Jan Steen, c. 1674, Szepmuveszeti Museum, Budapest

Masaaki Miyazawa: Once Upon a White Night, 1981.

For #caturday quite a contemporary looking #Roman mosaic of a lion, 6th century C.E., made of stone and mortar.

🏛️ Brooklyn Museum (not on view for some mysterious reason...)

🏺 #archaeology 🗃️ #arthistory #history #art #mosaicmonday #cat #cats #catsofbluesky

Cats often wandered the studio of Dutch impressionist painter George Hendrik Breitner (1857-1923). On this photo, that served as study for a painting, a tabby cat finds a subtle haven beneath the sofa, where the model Geesje Kwak reclines.

📸 George Hendrik Breitner, 1893. RKD

Young astrophysicist Dr. Brian May, born #OTD in 1947, seen here with a black cat and his homemade Fabry-Pérot Spectrometer, the Red Special.

Note the disk magnets in the pickups and the custom pulse-counting electronics. 🧪 🔭

Image: Brian May Archive

Amazing treasures of medieval legal history - the Catslechta ˙ (or Cat-sections) - an old Irish legal text on cats and part of an Old Irish legal compilation (the Senchas Már) #medievalsky

Cats and human love-making: somewhere between indifference, impatience, and disgust

📸 1963-1982. Photo by J. Vigeveno, RCE, the Netherlands
📸 1980s. A scene in Dordrecht. Photo by Ad Molendijk, Regionaal archief Dordrecht, the Netherlands
✏️ 1984. Drawing by Peter van Straten, Rijksmuseum

From the archive. “What makes cats especially loved in Turkey, and what can we learn from this special relationship?” Read more: www.sapiens.org/culture/cat-...

📸 1959, photographed by Angelo Rizzuto, Library of Congress, US
📸 No info, National Archives, The Netherlands
📸 1912-1913, possibly photographed by Liesbeth Overhoff, Rijksmuseum, The Netherlands
🖼️1850-1899, ‘The Conversation’, by David Bles, Rijksmuseum, The Netherlands