Animal paintings

July 1989

Interior Design


The history of art has always reflected the life of man in his
environment. Since man has traditionally shared his world with animals,
it is not surprising that paintings of animals, alone or with human
companions, exist. in the last two hundred years, however, this genre
has become so popular that Sotheby's and Christie's have established
separate departments for the sale of animal paintings. Called Sporting
pictures, the category includes subjects like hunting, racing, shooting,
wild and farm animals, horses and dogs.

In the 18th century in France, there were artists like Desportes and
Oudry who painted with exquisite care the privileged dogs who
accompanied the king and his court on the royal hunt. These
animals-dachshunds, spaniels, greyhounds, pointers-were important enough
to be given individual names, classical or colloquial, and to merit
portraits singly or in elegantly arranged groups. A famous painter of
exotic animals, Jean-Jacques Bachelier was best known for his depiction
of the Rococo dog, a precious poodle that looks more like a wind-up toy
than a living creature.

At the same time that Bachelier was memorializing the pets of the French
court, the century's greatest animal painter was working in England.
George Stubbs (1724-1806) wrote and illustrated papers on zoology and
comparative anatomy. He observed and painted, with scientific precision,
a wide range of animals from exotic cheetahs from India to the most
familiar of those domestic creatures the British have assimilated into
their human society, horses and dogs. Stubbs' animal portraits are
remarkable in their fusion of physical and psychological reality. His
White Poodle in a Punt presents a real rebuttal to the Rococo poodle by
emphasizing the truth, instinct and nature of the subject. His vision
encompassed the outer appearance of the dog, seen in a man-made context,
but somehow managed to intuit its inner, emotional life as well, with a
realism and clarity that has rarely been equalled.

Animal paintings by Stubbs are still highly prized by collectors, but
there were other 18th-century English artists who created memorable
portraits of horses and dogs. Thomas Gainsborough, famous for his
paintings of British aristocracy, chose as the subject of his first
signed picture a bull terrier named Bumper, painted alone and alert in
the woods. The distinguished British architect, Sir John Soane, was
inspired by a visit to some Roman ruins to create a pair of
architectural drawings for a "Canine Residence." One was restrained and
practical, and the second was a reflection of French architectural
fantasy, including a central dome, fountains, columns and a pair of
sculptured dogs guarding the entrance.

The great explosion of creativity in animal portraits took place in the
Victorian era. Queen Victoria, who reigned for more than 60 years, had
tremendous influence on the arts and culture of her nation. She espoused
all the traditional values-home and hearth, children, flowers, horses
and dogs. She and her husband, Prince Albert, had a large family and
numerous pets, and she commissioned many portraits by Edwin Landseer,
whom she later knighted. He became her official court painter and one of
the most influential artists of domestic subjects in the 19th century.
Landseer painted the royal couple, their children and many of their
animals, from macaws, lovebirds and marmosets to greyhounds,
Newfoundlands, terriers and spaniels. in his later works, dogs were
delineated in various guises, reflecting the occupations and sometimes
the social status of their masters.

Landseer's name was to become synonymous with the Victorian sensibility
toward animals, but there were other artists producing work with similar
motifs. The current revival of interest in the style of English country
homes helps to explain the enormous popularity of this genre today.
interior designers like Mario Buatta, who is also an avid collector, are
combing the art and antiques market in London and New York for animal
paintings to enhance the walls of their elegant, chintz-filled drawing
rooms.

The illustrated portrait of a Jack Russell terrier by a Victorian
English artist named John Alfred Wheeler comes from a good selection of
quality period paintings by Karen Warshaw who exhibits on East 74th
Street in New York. Another source is Bellechase, a shop in the Place
Des Antiquaires on East 57th Street that deals exclusively with animal
subjects. The auction houses publish their schedule of sales that
include annual or semi-annual auctions of sporting pictures.