The 25 Most Iconic Artworks of Animals

Animals have always been an underlying theme in art. Whether artists have used them literally or figuratively, with or without human subjects, they somehow command the composition and make meaning in ways previously unimaginable. Throughout art history, animals have served as vessels for happiness, distress, environmental issues, gender studies, and more. Enjoy The 25 Most Iconic Artworks of Animals and look a little closer next time you're at a museum or gallery.

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Medium: Photography

Horses are Jill Greenberg's original muses; she painted and drew horses from a young age. Greenberg was reinspired by her daughter's interest in animals and riding, as well as a British academic article about the similarities between the oppression of women and the function of horses. Greenberg's Horse captures the animal's body as well as its innate sexual energy, much like another photographer would capture a woman.

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Medium: Oil on Canvas

George Stubbs was considered to be a master of equine paintings, and Whistlejacket is exemplary of his unmatched talents. It is speculated that this painting was an early-stage equestrian portrait of George III, but it is commonly believed that it was Stubb's intention to leave the background blank.

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Medium: Polyester and Paint

Katharina Fritsch debuted the 12-foot-tall black Rat King during her first solo exhibition at the Dia Center for the Arts in 1993. The sculpture is an exaggeration of the rat-king phenomenon where a group of rodents are bound inescapably together through the accidental knotting of their tails. The first recorded sightings of this unusual phenomenon are found in Northern European accounts dating from the Renaissance. Fritsch's work transforms ordinary, often autobiographical objects and figures by modifying color and scale; she shifts them from the objective to subjective, possibly commenting on mass-produced culture.

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Medium: Oil on Wood Panel

The Lady with the Ermine was painted with oils on wood panel; oil paint was a relatively new medium in Italy at the time. The woman in the portrait is confirmed to be Cecilia Gallerani, who was the mistress of da Vinci's employer. The ermine or weasel included in the painting also helps confirm the subjects' identity, when it was realized that the first two syllables of her surname match the Greek word for weasel.

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Medium: Oil on canvas

Unlike many other female painters and artists of the time, Valadon enjoyed great financial and artistic success, due in part to her connections to other artists such as Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec, in addition to her undeniable talent. Valdon lived an eccentric life and was often surrounded by animals which became her subjects, which is exemplified in her painting, Two Cats.

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Medium: Oil on Wood

Gauguin painted Still Life with Three Puppies while living in Brittany, France among a group of experimental painters. Van Gogh introduced him to Japanese prints earlier that year, which also had an effect on his art. Gauguin was inspired by children's book illustrations and abandoned naturalistic depictions and colors.

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Medium: Oil on Canvas

Boudin spent his summers on Normandy's coasts, which inspired a few of his paintings. His small canvases of tourists on the beach received a decent amount of attention, and he often sold these quickly-painted works to their subjects.The Beach at Villerville features a dog in the foreground and a crowd directly behind, most likely painted in the same fashion.

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Medium: Oil on Canvas

Van Gogh's art was rooted in nature, which he returned to during the last years of his career as an artist.Two Crabs is thought to have been painted soon after van Gogh's release from the hospital in Arles in January 1889. The painting was inspired by Japanese woodblock prints, which became very fashionable at the end of the 19th century.

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Medium: Oil on Canvas

Commissioned by King Charles IV of Spain, few images are more widely recognised than Jacques-Louis David's Napoleon Crossing the Alps. In this famous portrait, Napoleon is pictured calmly sitting on a rearing Arabian stallion, as requested by the conquerer himself. The original painting was passed down through the Bonaparte family until it was donated to the Château de Malmaison. Napoleon was so pleased that he requested 3 other copies to be painted, with a 5th staying in Jacques-Louis David's studio.

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Medium: Watercolor and Bodycolor on a Cream Wash

Albrecht Durer was a well-rounded master of the arts, with a thousand drawings and watercolors to his name and the first to paint self-portraits.

Durer's Young Hare, completed in 1502, is considered an observational masterpiece because of its detailed and very accurate portrayal of a hare with a careful consideration of light and tone.

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Medium: Oil on Canvas

Gustav Klimt was one of the important figures in Vienna's cultural history, painting portraits for wealthy patrons as well as mythological and allegorical works. Most of his paintings included women except for a few, including Garden Path with Chickens. This painting, among others, was destroyed in 1945 by retreating SS troops during World War II.

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Medium: Gelatin Silver Print

Richard Avedon's iconic Dovima With Elephants was taken in the summer of 1955 in Paris, during the age of haute couture. The model, Dovima, is wearing a Dior dress with a sash, beautifully contrasting the rough texture of the elephants behind her. Dovima With Elephants is arguably Avedon's most famous photograph.

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Medium: Oil and Enamel on Canvas

Most of Kehinde Wiley's subjects are men from the "hip-hop generation" depicted in the styles of Western paintings typically commissioned by nobility and wealthy patrons of past eras. Officer of the Hussars is one of Wiley's portraits featuring horses, an important theme in art history, highlighted by perfect detail. Wiley's work blurs the boundaries between traditional and contemporary styles and is infused with majestic and subliminal messages.

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Medium: Aluminum and Gold Leaf

Takashi Murakami is known for his cartoonish and colorful images and creations, having collaborated with various designers (such as Louis Vuitton) and musicians (like Kanye West). Yume Lion was originally the symbol of the Japanese television channel, Tokyo MX, and was re-worked in aluminum and gold leaf for his 2010 exhibition at the Château de Versailles.

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Medium: Spraypaint Stencilling

Banksy's stencils feature jarring or humorous images combined with written or implied commentary on society and the perception of public figures. Rat Graffiti is one of his most recognized, with various stencils of rats partaking in whimsical actions or writing slogans. This image is one of Banky's trademarks, gracing the walls of various cities and streets.

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Medium: Lithograph

In January 1949, Picasso created The Dove, an image that became an iconographic symbol of peace, and specifically an emblem of hope during the Cold War. Picasso's image of the dove was selected for the poster of the First International Peace Congress in Paris in 1949, and The Peace Movement distributed images signed by Picasso, which helped make him more famous internationally. The dove depicted was actually a Milanese pigeon gifted to him by Henri Matisse.

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Medium: Mineral Pigments on Rock Walls

The Lascaux Caves in the southwestern region of France are famous for their Palaeolithic cave paintings, estimated to be 17,300 years old. Discovered in 1940, the cave contains nearly 2,000 figures, including animals, human figures, and abstract signs.

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Medium: Oil on Canvas

Dali's The Elephants contains similar spider-legged elephants as seen in two of his other paintings, The Temptation of Saint Anthony and Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening. The elephants with thin, elongated legs and heavy-weighted bodies are emphasizing the strength and weight that the creatures possess. Dali also included his hometown in the background, opening the painting up to further analytical debate.

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Medium: Plastic Laminate ColorCare

Frank Gehry, one of the most prolific and respected living architects, has created a lamp from the creature he considers to have a perfect form - the fish. His Fish Lamps are the second set; the originals were made in 1984. The lamps are now showing at the Gagosian galleries in Beverly Hills and Paris.

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Medium: Oil on Canvas

Frida Kahlo has painted 55 self-portraits out of her 143 total paintings, making it one of her signature styles. During her most prolific period in the 1940s, she created many depictions of herself, including Self Portrait With Monkeys, which shows the artist with her pet monkeys.

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Medium: Glass, Painted Steel, Silicone, Monofilament, Shark, and Formaldehyde Solution

Damien Hirst's The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living is comprised of a tiger shark preserved in formaldehyde contained within a steel and glass vitrine, weighting 23 tons in total. The piece was originally commissioned by Charles Saatchi in 1991, and its speculated worth is between $8 million and $12 million.

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Medium: Screenprinted Poster on Paper

Warhol produced four color combinations of his iconic Cow, all screenprinted on wallpaper, with the image taken from a unidentified book on animal breeding. Cow was the first in a series of wallpaper designs created from the 1960s to the 1980s and was first exhibited at the Leo Castelli Gallery.

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Medium: Bronze

Ai Weiwei's Zodiac Project is a re-creation of the twelve animal heads that adorned the Yuan Ming Yuan Palace located in Bejing, China around 1750. The original zodiac heads were looted by Anglo-French troops during the destruction of the Yuan Ming Yuan Palace in the opium wars of 1860. The Zodiac Project is Ai Weiwei's first major public sculpture, as well as a political prompt for Chinese nationalist sentiments.

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Medium: High Chromium Stainless Steel With Transparent Color Coating

Koons' Balloon Dog is a series of large, colorfully knotted balloon dogs made out of stainless steel with a mirror finish. Balloon Dog has no significance or meaning, as Koons insists about all of his art, and it's one of many works that has made him one of the world's most important artists. Different color variations of this piece have been exhibited around the world and have been subject to heavy criticism and acclaim.

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Medium: Oil on Canvas

Picasso's Guernica was a response to the German bombing of Guernica, a village in his native Spain, during the Spanish Civil War. This painting is one of his most politically charged masterpieces and eventually became an anti-war symbol. Once completed, Guernica was displayed on tour around the world, and brought attention to the Spanish Civil War.

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