Dutch artist, Judith Leyster, (1609-1660) was the first well-known person to paint CATS. Leyster was the eighth of the nine children and started painting at an early age.

Her painting Two Children with a Cat (below) is also referred t0 as Laughing Children with a Cat.
There are other paintings by Leyster that include cats, such as: A Boy and a Girl with a Cat and an Eel and Portrait of Two Yound Girls, One Holding a Cat and the Other Holding a Piece of Coral.