Grooming cat 

Friedrich Wilhelm Hirt captured this feline moment in a delicate pencil sketch. The drawing presents a cat in the midst of grooming, a common, intimate act now immortalized on paper. Made by a German artist, the image enters into a lineage of animal studies, a genre that gained prominence in the context of expanding natural science in the 18th and 19th centuries. Artists like Hirt turned to animal subjects to reflect a broader cultural interest in the natural world, one that was increasingly mediated through the lenses of scientific inquiry. While the drawing may seem straightforward, it reflects the social conditions that shaped artistic production. Historical sources can help us understand the meanings and cultural values that were assigned to animals in earlier times. This drawing reminds us that art is never created in a vacuum, and that its interpretation requires an understanding of its historical and institutional context.