little kitten big ears

image courtesy of the rijksmuseum open source. public domain.
gift of the heirs of mr. j. bernard ijsseldijk

The artist Jean Bernard (Amsterdam, 1765-1833) drew this "Head of a Cat" at some point in his life, and now it nestles somewhere in the keeping of the Rijksmuseum.  Look at those perfect kitten whiskers, hardly more than a whisper of whisker.  There are many more of these sensitively rendered cat studies there, yet I am having the devil of a time finding out anything about Bernard.  I must say this is one of the best bigeared kitten heads I've ever seen portrayed; she's a regular fruitbat, and I say that with great admiration.  Zozo was a fruitbat kitten too.  When tiny, her ears were of such disproportion to her tiny orange head that people would pick her up and look her over as if they expected her to sprout wings or who knows what.  She grew into them.