February 11, 1809

Karl Bodmer (February 11, 1809 to October 30, 1893) was born in Zurich and died in Paris. He achieved fame for his landscape paintings, which even include scenes from the American west, where, in the in the 1830s, he traveled much of the Missouri River. 

 Philip Hamerton quotes Bodmer in the next paragraph.

"Animals and the forest are my favorite theme, to which I wish to commit myself entirely” (p. 365). Philip Hamerton, author of Etching and Etchers,[1876].... praised Bodmer as “an artist of consummate accomplishment in his own way, and of immense range. There is hardly a bird or quadruped of Western Europe that he has not drawn, and drawn, too, with a closeness of observation satisfactory alike to the artist and the naturalist. The bird or beast is always the central subject with Karl Bodmer, but he generally surrounds them with a graceful landscape, full of intricate and mysterious suggestions, with here and there some plant in clearer definition, drawn with perfect fidelity ad care” (pp. 368-69).

The cats Bodmer drew, may have been French cats near Barbizon. We can see several of Bodmer's etchings of cats,  at the above link.