The Maine Coon Cat Toddler T-Shirt

This is a restored copy of "The Maine Coon", 1894, oil on canvas by Dutch-Belgian painter Henriette Ronner Knip, 1821-1909, who is famous for her cat paintings.
The Maine Coon is the largest domesticated cat breed. It has a distinctive physical appearance and valuable hunting skills. It is one of the oldest natural breeds in North America, specifically native to the state of Maine, where it is the official state cat.
No records of the Maine Coon's exact origins and date of introduction to the United States exist, so several competing hypotheses have been suggested. The breed was popular in cat shows in the late 19th century, but its existence became threatened when long-haired breeds from overseas were introduced in the early 20th century. The Maine Coon has since made a comeback and is now one of the most popular cat breeds in the USA.
The Maine Coon is a large and sociable cat, hence its nickname, "the gentle giant." It is characterized by a prominent ruff along...

I have been a visual artist since the 1960s. I'm originally from Orange County, New York, located in the Metro New York City region where I was raised on the working dairy farm [Ogden Farm] which my family founded in 1832. As a young man I spent many long hours working in gardens, crop fields, pastures and in barns with livestock. I grew up surrounded by antiques. I graduated from Bucknell University where I majored in art which included a semester in Florence studying Italian Renaissance art. After Bucknell I studied at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. I have lived throughout the U.S. [including three years in Sante Fe, New Mexico], in the Caribbean and in Mexico and Central America. I now reside in the 19th century...