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Academic Animal Paintings

ACADEMIC STYLE

During the Renaissance, the first European fine art academies were established in Italy and would guide the style and standards of visual culture in the following centuries. Academic art became dominant across the continent in the 17th century, with artists coming together to offer instruction in this style of painting and sculpture

The academic art period represented a significant change from the previous era when painters, sculptors and other artists were part of guilds and seen more as artisans than purveyors of culture. While patronage from the elite and the church remained pivotal, young artists were able to support themselves for the first time through academic exhibitions and an independent marketplace. The leading academies included the French Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture founded in Paris in 1648 (which became the Académie des Beaux-Arts after the French Revolution) and the London Royal Academy of Arts formed in 1768 under the inaugural leadership of painter Joshua Reynolds

Academy students sketched drawings based on prints, sculptures and, finally, live models. Movements including neoclassicism and romanticism were particularly popular in these art schools and institutions where the influence of Raphael and Nicolas Poussin was prominent. Beaux Arts architecture and furniture design drew on these movements, too, and, as they also originated at the Académie des Beaux-Arts, the disciplines share common ground with academic painting and sculpture.

Although academic art was a major shift for artistic status when it began, by the middle of the 19th century it was viewed as stodgy and resistant to new ideas, with the subject matter of artists such as William-Adolphe Bouguereau and Jean-Léon Gérôme generally limited to allegorical or mythological themes. Impressionism, realism and the other movements that engaged with contemporary issues that followed were direct reactions to the academic tradition, although it continued to inform the avant-garde as artists like Gustav Klimt and Pablo Picasso started their practices as academic realists.  

Find a collection of academic paintings, sculptures, prints and more art on 1stDibs. 

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Style: Academic
Original French Illustrations of an Equine Skeletal and Dental Structures
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Title: Original French Illustrations of an Equine Skeletal and Dental Structures Artist: Robert Ladou (French, 1929-2014) Medium: Pencil and Pen on Paper Size: 19.75 (Height) x 25.75...
Category

20th Century Academic Animal Paintings

Materials

Pencil, Pen

Original French Anatomical Study of Horse's Head
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Title: Original French Anatomical Study of Horse's Head Artist: Robert Ladou (French, 1929-2014) Medium: Pen Size: 19.75 (Height) x 12.75 (Width) Signed: No Condition: Good, minor di...
Category

20th Century Academic Animal Paintings

Materials

Pen

Original French Anatomical Pencil Study of Horse's Head
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Title: Original French Anatomical Pencil Study of Horse's Head Artist: Robert Ladou (French, 1929-2014) Medium: Pencil on Paper Size: Excluding Mount: 8.75 (Height) x 10.75 (Width), ...
Category

20th Century Academic Animal Paintings

Materials

Pencil

Original French Anatomical Study of Horse's Pelvic Girdle
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Title: Original French Anatomical Study of Horse's Pelvic Girdle Artist: Robert Ladou (French, 1929-2014) Medium: Pencil on Paper Size: 19.75 (Height) x 12.75 (Width) Signed: No Cond...
Category

20th Century Academic Animal Paintings

Materials

Pencil

The Hunting with Hounds Oil On Canvas by Eugene Pechaubes circa 1935
Located in Paris, FR
Oil on canvas representing a hunting. Signed bottom right E. Pechaubes. Eugène Pechaubes (1890-1967). French school XXth century. He mainly painted horses and horce racing. Within...
Category

Mid-20th Century Academic Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas

Gardians In Camargue, Oil On Canvas Signed Henri Emilien Rousseau, 1924
Located in Paris, FR
GARDIANS IN CAMARGUE Oil on canvas signed Henri Emilien ROUSSEAU (1875-1933) and dated 1924. Orientalist painter, landscapes and horses. Here a Camargue scene depicting herdsmen watching their flocks. Beautiful original frame. Canvas has been re-lined. Canvas size: 73.5 x 100 cm With frame: 102 x 129 cm Henri Emilien Rousseau (1875-1933) was a painter who was considered the ‘Last Orientalist’. Born in...
Category

1920s Academic Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

'Rider at Sunset' Equestrian and Horse Oil on Canvas Painting by Chris Brizzard
Located in Oklahoma City, OK
The rapid pace of the ride over a country landscape and the relationship between the rider and horse are felt in this oil on canvas painting by Chris Brizzard...
Category

2010s Academic Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

A. LEONARD - Flower Girl and her Dog
Located in Saint-Ouen, FR
A. LEONARD (19th-20th) Flower Girl and Her Dog Oil on canvas signed low left Old Frame regilded with Leaves Dim canvas : 46 X 38 cm Dim Frame : 55 X 46 cm
Category

Late 19th Century Academic Animal Paintings

Materials

Oil

Gallop (after Stubbs)
Located in Bozeman, MT
This Reed piece is of a horse painted on 6 separate sheets of oil paper. It is painted in the influence of the European artist Stubbs. This painting is oil on paper, and is monochrom...
Category

2010s Academic Animal Paintings

Materials

Oil, Archival Paper

Portrait (after Stubbs and Anon.)
Located in Bozeman, MT
This Reed piece is of a horse painted on 6 separate sheets of oil paper. It is painted in the influence of the European artist Stubbs. This painting is oil on paper, and is monochrom...
Category

2010s Academic Animal Paintings

Materials

Oil, Archival Paper

Cute Koala Bear Australia, Photorealism
Located in Miami, FL
John Ruthven is recognized as the “20th-century Audubon. In this very detailed and meticulously rendered work the artist depicts a Koala in an iconic and proud pose and a Photoreali...
Category

1970s Academic Animal Paintings

Materials

Watercolor, Gouache

Hunting Dog Portrait Pastel On Paper By Catherine Dammeron
Located in Gavere, BE
The artist Catherine Dammeron was born in 1976 in Wissembourg in Alsace. She made her passion for pastel drawing her job. Artist going against the current, this resident of Yonne fav...
Category

1990s Academic Animal Paintings

Materials

Gold Leaf

Hunting Still LIfe
By Joseph van den Kerkhoven
Located in Atlanta, GA
Joseph van den Kerkhoven was born in Bruges. He became a student of J. van Meunincxhove in 1682, and then a student of E. Quellinus in Anvers. After a voyage to Frankfort, he found...
Category

Academic Animal Paintings

Materials

Oil, Wood Panel

Three Bucks in the Fontainebleu Forest
By Rosa Bonheur
Located in Miami, FL
Rosa Bonheur was the most famous female artist of the 19th Century. We are grateful to Annie-Paule Quinsac for confirming the authenticity of this painting. The work is best viewed with top gallery light to bring out colors ____________________________________________ Rosa Bonheur: Three Bucks in the Fontainebleau Forest, erroneously Stags or Monarchs in the forest Oil on canvas, 29 x 24 inches [74 x 61cm], signed and dated lower left, Rosa Bonheur 1886 The discovery of this painting, a reinterpretation of Bonheur’s most iconic work Le roi de la Foret, [Monarch in the forest]is a significant event in the artist’s scholarship. In forty years of study, I was not aware of its existence and did not find any reproduction of it throughout my extensive reading. Bought by the present owner at the Stamford Winter Auction in 2008, it had been the property of a certain Captain [ name illegible] until January 29, 1920, or from that date {?}. The label on the back of the canvas reads: “Collection of Captain J.H.Gaucis Jan.29,1920”. [the handwriting on the label is extremely unusual; my deciphering of it induces me to propose this last name, Latvian in origin] […] This work could not have been offered among the 95 paintings that compose the catalog section titled “Stags, Hinds, Roebucks,” [ NN.320-415] in the catalog of the Rosa Bonheur Posthumous Sale organized by the Galerie Georges Petit in Paris, which included over two thousand pieces kept in the studio and not sold during her life time : it does not correspond to any of the description or measurements given in these catalog entries. The number 5527inscribed in red on the back of the canvas could refer to the painting having be handled by the Knoedler Galerie, Paris and New York, which after Bonheur’s death, that of Ernest Gambart (1814-1902and George Petit, (1856-1920) was instrumental in the continued diffusion of her work in the US, maintaining her prices that had crashed elsewhere in Europe. Despite difficulties in tracing the provenance history, the attribution to Rosa Bonheur, cannot be denied. Stylistic and iconographic characters are typical of her expressive means in the late 80’s. Also, it cannot be questioned that the calligraphy of signature and date is hers. The work depicts three male deers- or bucks- of different age, in a trail, deep in the forest at twilight, just after sunset toward the end of Fall. The two big ones, have stopped in their track, facing the beholder frontally; the small one, in profile, seems ready to move in another direction. The umbrella term deer, or the more specific one buck {male deer} could both be used as title to this painting, rather than stag, which implies an old majestic senior male deer, considered the King of the forest also called Monarch. In the Cervidae family, the number of points of a deer’s antler is one of the indicators of age, along with body mass and overall size. In our painting, the most prominent stag is massive and has a twelve points antler – qualifying as Monarch. The one immediately behind him exhibits an eight points antler and appears strong and imposing as well does not possess but not his companion’s poise. It is a mature stag. The last one, slender, shoulders not quite muscular yet, with barely six points to his antler, could not be more than two years old. The intensity of expression of the two older stags and their presence in the landscape which is rendered as their stage, are characteristic of Bonheur’s rapport to animals and nature. The painting’s varnish has deteriorated and forms a film that will need to be removed through a cautious cleaning. It is particularly important that the transparent haze that evokes the humidity of the forest at that crucial moment of the light be preserved. It contributes to the painting vibrance. Since 1860, when Rosa Bonheur moved to the Chateau of By, which she had bought with her companion Nathalie Micas, the Fontainebleau Forest which was at a stone through of her property, became ground of studies and the Cervidae a common subject. By then, she would already sketch en plein air, and months or years later, create paintings from start to finish in the studio using the visual material collected while walking through nature or observing animal in their milieu. Her first image of the Great Monarch in the forest, represented frontally and in a similar forest background is the 1868 painting Le cerf de Saint Hubert [Hubertus’ Stag], an illustration of the legend of Saint Hubertus in which she included a cross between the stag’s antlers. As the story as it, Hubertus was a passionate hunter and would often forget his religious duties to go hunting. On a certain Sunday in the depth of a forest, where he had ventured alone, he began to pursue a stag The animal faced him and while a cross appeared between his antlers, the voice of God was heard, directing him to repent ad respect all animals. Rosa Bonheur was herself a hunter but also a spiritualist, influenced by the Saint Simonian creeds and by spiritism. She believed that certain animals had a soul. I personally think that magnificent monarchs and the St Hubertus...
Category

1880s Academic Animal Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Academic animal paintings for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Academic animal paintings available for sale on 1stDibs. Works in this style were very popular during the 21st Century and Contemporary, but contemporary artists have continued to produce works inspired by this movement. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including William-Adolphe Bouguereau, John Ruthven, Shelley Reed, and Alfred Arthur Brunel De Neuville. Frequently made by artists working with Paint, and Oil Paint and other materials, all of these pieces for sale are unique and have attracted attention over the years. Not every interior allows for large Academic animal paintings, so small editions measuring 10 inches across are also available. Prices for animal paintings made by famous or emerging artists can differ depending on medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $462 and tops out at $700,000, while the average work sells for $7,200.

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