Animal Paintings for Sale

Animal art styles

The styles and forms of animal depictions have always changed throughout history along with artistic trends. In Ancient Egypt, animals were mostly depicted on the walls of temples or pyramids. In the Far East, paintings of animals often use the image of tigers, pandas, monkeys or mythical snake-like dragons. The ornaments of the Scythian tribes were filled with stylized images of horses, deer and fantastic griffins. Book miniature became the ideal space for stylized images of animals in medieval Europe. Here the authors found an endless source for their imagination: legendary drawings with strange hares, snails and lions have become part of mass culture today. But in addition to subjects for amusing illustrations, in the Middle Ages animals acquired a special significance as symbols. When used in heraldry or decoration, the authors endowed them with hidden meanings. The prerequisites for the transition of animalism in painting to a completely new qualitative level were formed by the Renaissance with its desire for naturalness. Influenced by the ideas of Leonardo da Vinci and his painting The Lady with an Ermine, Albrecht Dürer conveys the anatomical features of animals (The Rhinoceros) with mathematical precision, setting new standards for artists, the main of which is realism. Paintings of animals by famous artists, such as Two Crabs by Vincent van Gogh, the source of inspiration for which was the work of the Japanese printmaker Hokusai, Dying Bull by Picasso or even the naive art of Rousseau or Primachenko, they all refer to animalistic motifs, but returning to stylization and imagery. Contemporary art considers animals as a subject matter in the context of environmentalism and care for nature, paying attention to the shortcomings of the total culture of consumption.

Famous animal artists

One of the most famous European artists who worked in the animalistic genre is George Stubbs (1724-1806). He was not only an outstanding English painter, but also a biologist, the author of a number of scientific articles on anatomy. Therefore, it is not surprising that Stubbs’ paintings are extremely meticulous, perfect from an anatomical point of view, depicting every detail, muscle or movement. His paintings, including Horse Frightened by a Lion (1770), Sleeping Leopard (1780) and Green Monkey (1798), became masterpieces of the animalistic genre. The German animal artist and illustrator Wilhelm Kuhnert (1865-1926) is also an outstanding master of depicting animals. Representatives of the wild nature of East Africa became the sphere of interests of his creativity. Kuhnert painted directly from nature, observing animals in their habitat, paying attention to the environment.

Best animal paintings

The cave with rock paintings is the first animal paintings gallery. Although, literally, these drawings cannot be called “paintings”, the detail and skill with which they are depicted is impressive and captivating. Compared to schematic anthropomorphic figures, herds of wild bison or horses are represented as the real rulers of the contemporary world and wildlife. Such images can be found in the cave of Lascaux (about 15-18 thousand years ago) or Chauvet (about 30-33 thousand years ago), located on the territory of modern France. The best examples of painting are famous paintings of animals by various world artists, including Two Owls (1870) by Gustave Doré, Head of a Dog (1876) by Édouard Manet, as well as Gustave Courbet’s work Sitting on Cushions Dog (1855).