Our Animal Friends

This selection of works depicting animals draws inspiration from the long tradition of animal painting, but even more from the tender and co-dependent relationships that connect us so strongly to the animal kingdom. Present since prehistoric times, the representation of animals in painting is particularly ancient. Over the centuries, animal painting has established itself as one of the principal genres of figurative art. Although the advent of photography in the 19th century diminished its prominence, wildlife photography quickly followed in its wake. Since then, the depiction of animals and the interactions between humans and animals has benefited from increasingly advanced photographic techniques. These allow for a detailed view of subjects, granting an almost scientific value to the images, while enabling observation of their behaviors, gestures, and movements. Nonetheless, pictorial representation does not disappear but gradually frees itself from the desire to imitate nature, seeking instead to capture what eludes the eye. Far from any sentimentality, these tender glimpses into the animal world, imbued with empathy and even recognition, reflect our most deeply ingrained atavisms.