Alexandre-Francois Desportes was France's leading animal painter during the first half of the 18th century.

He was appointed painter to King Louis XIV and painted the family's favourite dogs, hunting scenes and pictures of exotic birds and mammals to decorate the King's menagerie at Versailles.

Desportes was particularly celebrated for his ability to paint animals accurately from nature and this picture shows how the artist paid great attention to detail, especially in the animals' fur and feathers.

I just want to say thank you to you and the other contributors for making this the best art community I know of on the internet.

Thank you for the kind words - I really love all the art that gets posted here too!

interesting how kitty looks like 3d/foreground and birdie looks 2d/background. also seems like a pretty awkward stance for a cat.

It probably took some time to get the cat the stay still while he painted it.

This is exactly the stance my derpy cat would perform. It might actually be my cat - time traveling.

Oh, the tax: