famous animal paintings

From the start of humanity, men always had a special relationship with animals. This shows in the many famous cave paintings where animals play an important part. In the caves of Lasceaux for instance, bulls, horses and other animals are painted on the walls.
There are many famous animal paintings painted over the course of history. This shows us how deep the bond between humans and animals is. May it be pets, like cats, dogs or horses which are depicted in the paintings, or wild animals like lions and elephants.
Although animal paintings never have been a great genre in art history like lanscapes and portraits, there are still a significant number of famous painters who made paintings with an animal as a theme.

Many famous painters, like Vincent van Gogh, used animals to study nature and to improve there painting skills. Animals are a great subject for a painting. Cats and dogs are ideal for a sketch or a drawing.
Above, Vincent van Gogh used two crabs as a still-life, so here we see a cross over of two genres. Although animals where not seen as a genre as such, stillives where, and in many still-lifes animals play a key role.
In the 17th century many painters used pheasants and fish, crab, and many other animals to express and show off there painting skills.
In this light Vincent van Gogh painted this painting of two crabs and it stands in a long tradition of paintings.

During the Ming Dynasty thousandths of animal drawings and paintings where made. The created paintings often had a political or ethical message with secret codes. As a result a complicated and metaphoric language of Chinese animal paintings was developed. employing both the animals symbolic meanings as well there artistic beauty.Hou-mei Sung discovered a secret code in the animal paintings and the seemingly lost meanings of the Chinese animal paintings led to a full scale investigation of the history of Chinese animal painting.
Although the Symbolic meanings of the animals where associated with individual motives the animals still had there place in the Chinese culture and there concept about the universe and nature. From the Yin/Yang concept to the more "modern" Confucian philosophies and ethics, the animals kept there special place in the paintings and drawings.Many Chinese animal paintings have luckily survived the wars and internal turmoils, theshifting of power from Warlord to Emperor to Communist China. Maybe because, animals are still dear to us, even and perhaps more so in wartime.