Animals
Hue Plus collection on The Daily Hue.
Animals have been part of art for as long as humans have been making images. From the earliest depictions of animals in prehistoric caves to the carefully observed birds, horses, dogs, fish, and wild creatures found in paintings, prints, ceramics, and drawings, animals have given artists a way to explore the natural world while also expressing ideas about humanity. Across different cultures and periods, animals have represented power, loyalty, beauty, danger, spirituality, wealth, freedom, and even death. In medieval European art, animals could carry complex religious and moral meanings, while in ancient cultures they were often connected to gods, kingship, protection, and the forces of nature. In Japanese art, animals became symbols of good fortune, divine presence, bravery, and the changing seasons. The works in this collection show just how many different roles animals can play in art. Artists such as John James Audubon and Martin Johnson Heade approached animals through close observation, creating images that are both artistic and almost scientific in their attention to anatomy, movement, and behavior. Audubon's birds and his dramatic Osprey and Weakfish show animals as subjects worthy of intense study, while Heade's hummingbirds combine careful observation with an appreciation for the beauty of the natural world. Other works treat animals as part of everyday life, such as horses in landscapes or domestic dogs, while paintings like Raphael's Saint George and the Dragon place animals within stories of heroism, religion, and mythology. Hiroshige's birds and marine life demonstrate another tradition in which animals could become elegant decorative subjects, carrying cultural associations that went far beyond their physical appearance. Animals have also provided artists with a way to explore movement and emotion. A leaping fish, a running horse, a hunting bird, or a crouching tiger can make an image feel alive even when the rest of the scene is completely still.
Artworks in this collection (21)
Adriaan van der Hoop’s Trotter ‘De Vlugge’ (The Fast One) in a Meadow
Anthony Oberman · 1828 · Rijksmuseum
The horse in this painting was not simply an anonymous animal. De Vlugge, meaning “The Fast One,” was a trotter owned by Adriaan van der Hoop, one of the wealthiest and most influential figures in 19th-century Amsterdam. Van der Hoop was a banker, politician, and art collector…
Adriaan van der Hoop’s Trotter ‘De Rot’ at the Coach House
Anthony Oberman · 1828 · Rijksmuseum
The horse in this painting, De Rot, was another trotter owned by Adriaan van der Hoop, a wealthy Amsterdam banker, politician, and prominent art collector. Van der Hoop was also an enthusiastic horseman, and paintings of his horses became part of the visual record of his…
Birds
American 19th Century · c. 1840 · National Gallery of Art
This unusual painting, was made by an unidentified American artist around 1840, when pictures of birds were becoming increasingly popular in the United States. The 19th century saw a growing interest in documenting American wildlife, partly because naturalists were trying to…
Bright Yellow Canary Bird
Ryūryūkyo Shinsai · c. 1820 · Minneapolis Institute of Art
Ryūryūkyō Shinsai’s Bright Yellow Canary Bird, made around 1820, is a good example of the surimono tradition, a type of Japanese woodblock print made primarily for private circulation rather than mass-market sale. Shinsai was active during the late Edo period and became known…
Cattleya Orchid and Three Hummingbirds
Martin Johnson Heade · 1871 · National Gallery of Art
Martin Johnson Heade’s Cattleya Orchid and Three Hummingbirds was painted in 1871, after the artist had developed a particular fascination with the tropical landscapes and wildlife of South America. Heade traveled to Brazil several times beginning in the 1860s, studying its…
Plate with Bird and Flower
Unknown · early 1900s · Cleveland Museum of Art
Plate with Bird and Flower is an example of the Ko-Kutani revival style, a Japanese porcelain tradition that looked back to the bold designs of 17th-century Kutani ware. Although the original Kutani kilns had become inactive, artists and ceramic workshops revived the style…
Concert of Birds
Anonymous Artist · 1660/1670 · National Gallery of Art
Dozens of multicolored birds of various sizes are arranged around a stout tree in this horizontal landscape painting. At least two dozen species of birds perch along the branches and crowd around the base. For example, there are birds with gold bodies, cobalt-blue wings, and hook
Study of Birds and Monkey
Anonymous Artist · 1660/1670 · National Gallery of Art
Study of Birds and Monkey, dated to around 1660–1670, belongs to the tradition of 17th-century European paintings that combined art with the growing interest in the natural world. The work is now attributed to the circle of Jan van Kessel the Elder, rather than to van Kessel…
Study of Birds and Monkeys
Anonymous Artist · 1660/1670 · National Gallery of Art
Study of Birds and Monkeys, painted around 1660–1670, is part of a group of small animal paintings associated with the circle of Jan van Kessel the Elder, a Flemish artist who became known for highly detailed studies of the natural world. Van Kessel worked at a time when…
Three Yellow Throated Sloths Clambering Up a Tree
Unknown · n.d. · Wellcome Collection
This 19th-century lithograph belongs to the tradition of natural-history illustration, when printed images were an important way for people in Europe to learn about animals they would probably never encounter themselves. The image is identified as showing yellow-throated sloths…
Black-Footed Ferret
John Woodhouse Audubon · 1840/1846 · National Gallery of Art
John Woodhouse Audubon’s Black-Footed Ferret, dated 1840–1846, comes from a period when American artists were closely connected to the growing interest in natural history. Audubon was the son of the better-known naturalist and artist John James Audubon, and he worked alongside…
Horses in a Meadow
Edgar Degas · 1871 · National Gallery of Art
Horses in a Meadow was painted by Edgar Degas in 1871, during an important period in his development as an artist. Although Degas is now especially associated with dancers and scenes of modern Parisian life, horses were one of his major subjects throughout his career. He became…
Osprey and Weakfish
John James Audubon · 1829 · National Gallery of Art
John James Audubon’s Osprey and Weakfish was painted in 1829 as part of his larger effort to document North American birdlife with an unusual combination of scientific observation and dramatic composition. Audubon had spent years traveling through the United States studying…
Race Horse and Trainer
Anonymous Artist · c. 1820/1825 · National Gallery of Art
Race Horse and Trainer, dating to around 1820 to 1825, is an anonymous British sporting painting that was once attributed to Benjamin Marshall, one of the most prominent English painters of racehorses during the early nineteenth century. It is now considered to be in the style…
Tama, the Japanese Dog
Edouard Manet · c. 1875 · National Gallery of Art
Tama, the Japanese Dog, painted around 1875, is an unusual animal portrait by Édouard Manet, better known for works such as Olympia and Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe. The painting belongs to a period when Manet was increasingly interested in everyday subjects and the possibilities of…
The Last of the Buffalo
Albert Bierstadt · 1888-1889 · National Gallery of Art
Albert Bierstadt’s The Last of the Buffalo was painted in 1888 to 1889, near the end of his career, and became his final major Western landscape. Bierstadt was born in Germany in 1830 but grew up in Massachusetts and became one of the best-known American landscape painters of…
Tiger
Kishi Renzan · c. 1840–59 · Minneapolis Institute of Art
Kishi Renzan was a Japanese painter of the late Edo period who became one of the leading figures of the Kishi school, an artistic tradition particularly known for its paintings of animals. Born in Kyoto in 1804 or 1805, Renzan studied under Kishi Ganku, a celebrated painter of…
Prawn and Yellow Tail
Utagawa Hiroshige; Publisher: Izumiya Ichibei · 1830s · Minneapolis Institute of Art
Prawn and Yellow Tail is a color woodblock print by Utagawa Hiroshige, produced sometime between 1835 and 1839 and published by Izumiya Ichibei. It belongs to an untitled series of fish prints that Hiroshige made during the Tenpō era, when he was producing a large number of…
A Mexican Vaquero
Frederic Remington · 1890 · Art Institute of Chicago
Frederic Remington was one of the most important American artists to shape the visual image of the American West in the late nineteenth century. Born in New York in 1861, Remington originally attended Yale with the intention of pursuing a career in art, but his life and…
Life-Size Black Bass
Winslow Homer · 1904 · Art Institute of Chicago
Winslow Homer was one of the most important American artists of the nineteenth century, known for his independent approach to painting and his deep interest in everyday life, nature, and the sea. Although he began his career as an illustrator, Homer gradually turned toward…
Saint George and the Dragon
Raphael · c. 1506 · National Gallery of Art
Raphael was one of the defining artists of the High Renaissance, celebrated for the balance, clarity, and elegance of his paintings. Born in Urbino, he trained under his father and later worked in Florence, where he encountered the art of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo…