Animal

Animals are often featured in news, sometimes in heartwarming tales of human and animal companionship and other times in heartbreaking stories of illegal trade and endangered species. Animals are even present in social sciences, especially thank to ethology (behavioural sciences of animals in their natural habitat). They have fascinated philosophers from Antiquity all the way through to today and they are even present in the medical realm, as the benefits of animal-assisted therapies have been scientifically proven.

The relationship between humans and animals is also taken into account in the politics, most notably when debating topics related to ecology, the protection of ecosystems and sustainable development. Thus, animals might be seen as a crucial indicator of humanity's concerns.

As well in these many sectors, animals are also very much present in the arts. A number of art museums have decided exhibitions to animals including the Cluny Museum in Paris and MoMA PS1 in New York. Whether simply a humble spectator in an 18th century painting or the central subject of a Courbet painting, animals are present throughout the history of art. From symbolic, to esthetic, to abstract, to animal drawings meant to simply record their appearance...all these representations have played a role in influencing artists and also how we characterise and think of individual animals.

Each civilisation has represented the animal on multiples supports (mosaics, metal, stone, bones, etc.) as seen on the Nerja cave wall paintings in Andalusia discovered in 1925. Animal iconography has had multiple purposes, varying according to the era and place. Bats, for example, are often used to represent death, fear or superstition in Western art, whereas the Chinese see them as a sign of happiness. The omnipresence of animals within cultures across the globe is probably down to the similarities between men and animal, a source of both fascination and fear.

In this selection, Artsper helps you to discover the beauty of the animal kingdom, its diversity, strength and fragility. Artists depict animals in a huge range of mediums: sculpture, painting, photographs, and drawings. Contemporary artists bring an original and poetic vision to their representations of the animals with whom we share our world.

Search by Image

Save your search and find it in your favorites

25/100 1 10 20 23 24 25 26 27 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Categories

Subcategories

Animal

Panda Cubs Panda Cubs

Portrait de chien

Panthère sautant sur le rocher

Etincelles Marines - Variation N°2 - Gravure & Poésie

Silent Sheep, Ancient Stone

Levitate

Expression

Lupus

Léopard

Bleu ballon de chien 12

L'entrée en scène

Canard

Piaf Pop Love S

Elegante en robe jaune

Petits polissons

Bullfight #4

35cm Cartier Tribute Teddy

35cm CH Tribute, bi color white and gold Teddy

Head

Tête de cheval

L’enlèvement d'Europe

Ensemble

Le bison

Bride and Groom

Héron cendré

Colorful Sheep

Big Quickly

T-Rex

Wild kong red

Le chevalier Chretien, from the series Les Chevaux Daliniens

Sheep

Majestic Lion Sculpture

Hemerocallis thumbergii elephanter from Surrealistic Flowers

Ghetto Cat

Black Eye Patch 1000%

Jungle Happiness

Chien béat sur nickel 59

Le grand sage de la nature

Strange Fish 2

Strange Fish

Gorille

Perroquet

Dobermann

Skate Chanoir, Dégradation Tropicale

Gift 3

Carte du Sud de la Corse

Three of a Kind

M. Chat au Mont Saint-Michel

Bride and Groom

Carte du Nord de la Corse

Carmen and Don José fleeing on horseback from The Opera Carmen

Tague la Lune

Sérigraphie - Chanoir x Grems

Royal Selangor Arabesque Golden 400%

Skate édition dégradé de rose à jaune

Wrapped in Kindness

Untitled

Lion king, I'm the big boss

My French Bulldog loves Chanel and Dom Pérignon

Dan, from the series Twelve Tribes of Israel

Whimsical Whiskers

Cien Caballos sueltos

The Soaring of Spirit

Tête de cheval impressionniste

Dragon, le 5 ème

Ours debout royal green