Green Blog

Wildlife art, art on the subject of wild animals and birds, is a popular area of the arts. Some of the very earliest artworks were on this subject.

Cave paintings from the prehistoric age often included wild animals and birds which were food or danger at the time and so conceptualized very differently from our current perspective on them. Sculptures from the ancient world also often include animals and birds.

The evolution of people’s attitudes to wild animals and birds is clearly reflected in wildlife art. After their initial lives close to wild animals, humans grew to separate themselves from the natural world, and this is reflected in the fact that wildlife was mostly absent from long periods of western art. Religious views at the time ignored the natural world and focused on the human realm.

The romantic era used wildlife in its typical emotional representations of the world. A typical example is a proud noble lion contrasted with an evil-looking tiger with eyes downcast in shame.

Around this time wildlife in art was also often about the boundaries between the human world and the natural world, rather than a view of nature in its own right. For example, there was art depicting a lion attacking a domestic horse.

The stag paintings of Landseer were among the most popular of all art during the Victorian era and are still well loved today. Wildlife increased in popularity around this time. The finest picture book ever published is said to be the book on birds of America by the famous bird artist Audubon.

Currently, wildlife art is a popular subject. Nature is loved as a subject in its own right now, and wildlife art reflects this interest by showing wild birds and animals in their natural environments. Conservation is also a big issue these days with some wildlife art created for the express purpose of increasing public awareness of the importance of conservation.

Want to see the paintings referred to above, and find out more about Wildlife Art? then visit Thomas Goldman’s great site which is the definitive guide to wildife art.