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Antique Animal Paintings

About this collection

Antique animal painting is the art of the dog, the hounds of the hunt, the farmyard and the wild animal, a subject European painters took seriously from the 18th century onwards.

Animals were painted for the people who loved them. A favourite spaniel, a huntsman's hounds, a fox with its prey or a pair of tigers in an open landscape, the works here were made for owners, hunters and collectors, and many are signed. To see how the dog became a subject in its own right, read our guide to collecting antique dog portraits.

A girl in a blue skirt feeding a flock of turkeys in a shorn field at the edge of an oak wood, signed oil by Emile Michel dated 1872, in a carved gilt frame

Emile Michel (1828-1909)

Girl with Turkeys, 1872
$6,700Signed
The unframed panel on a small easel on a marquetry desk in a panelled study, next to bound books and brass candlesticks

Tristan Lacroix (1849-1914)

Huntsman and Hounds, 1891
$2,900Signed
Dutch School farmyard painting of a hen with her chicks and an earthenware pan, a windmill beyond a ruined wall, oil on canvas in a moulded frame

Dutch School, circa 1700

Hen and Chicks, circa 1700
$6,700
Two tigers resting before a dark rock at dusk, mid 19th century French oil on canvas in a gilt frame

French School, mid-19th century

Two Tigers in a Landscape, 1800s
$12,000

Guides · before you buy

Choosing an Antique Painting for Above the FireplaceThe mantel decides the painting before you do.Read the guideAnimated Landscapes, Figures in 19th-Century French PaintingA landscape in which figures appear, but in which the figures are not the subject.Read the guide
Fox seizing a duck at the water's edge, 19th century French oil on canvas by Ernest Brigot, unframed

Ernest Brigot (1836-1910)

Fox Seizing a Duck, 19th Century
$13,000Signed
Camel in wedding trappings with a plumed litter in the desert, signed oil on canvas by Alfred Couverchel

Alfred Couverchel (1834-1867)

Wedding Camel, 1800s
$12,000Signed
Signed and dated 1882 portrait of a puppy by Charles Chaplin, oil on bare mahogany panel in a carved gilt frame

Charles Joshua Chaplin (1825-1891)

Portrait of a Puppy, 1882
$3,800Signed
Portrait of a Pekingese named Kit, signed oil on panel by Ernest Jean Delahaye, circa 1910, in an oak frame

Ernest Jean Delahaye (1855-1921)

Pekingese Named Kit, c. 1910
$2,900Signed
 The school French Romanticism1820s to 1850sGéricault and Delacroix, color over line, the brush set free.Discover the school
Two King Charles spaniels in a dark landscape, 18th century French oil on panel in an ebonized frame

French School, 18th century

Two King Charles Spaniels, 1700s
$6,900
Two white spitz dogs, an adult and a puppy, 19th century French oil on canvas in a gilt frame

French School, 19th century

Two White Spitz Dogs, 1800s
$2,700

GalerieClub Fine Art

1,100+

paintings sold since 2017

Poppy Fields, late 1800sSold Poppy Fields, late 1800s Hagar and Ishmael, 1700sSold Hagar and Ishmael, 1700s Penitent Magdalene, 1600sSold Penitent Magdalene, 1600s

Our promise

  • Every painting photographed front and back
  • The frame you see is the frame that ships
  • Free tracked UPS Express Saver to the US

New paintings, by email

A note when new paintings come in. Nothing else.

Elsewhere in the gallery

Antique animal paintings for sale at GalerieClub

For a long time the academies ranked animals below people. Owners and hunters ignored the ranking, and by the 19th century animal painting had its own painters, its own patrons and its own place at the Salon. The animal paintings in this collection, all more than a century old and most of them 19th century animal oil paintings, come out of that change.

  • Dogs were painted as members of the household. A toy spaniel on a cushion, a pair of white Spitz dogs or a puppy with its ears pricked each received the same care as a family portrait, and an antique dog oil painting often records a breed as it looked before modern breeding changed it. King Charles spaniels of the 18th century had longer muzzles than the flat-faced dogs that carry the name today.

  • The hunt gave animal painting its grandest setting. A huntsman with his hounds at the edge of a wood, the coats of the pack, the horn and the season all belong to sporting art, painted for owners who knew every dog by name. An antique hunting hounds oil painting is read through its details, the couples, the collars and the uniform of the hunt servants.

  • Some painters looked beyond the farm and the kennel. Tigers in open country, a fox with its prey or a camel dressed for a festival brought the Romantic taste for distant places and wild nature into painting, and more of these subjects hang in our collection of French Romanticism paintings.

  • The farmyard was painted from the Dutch tradition onward. Hens with their chicks, turkeys at the edge of a wood and the life around a windmill gave painters a subject close at hand, and an antique farmyard painting treats the ordinary animal with the attention of a portrait.

  • Many animal painters signed and dated their canvases, and a signed 19th century animal painting can be placed in its painter's career. Unsigned works are described by school and period, as our guide to reading an attribution explains, and many keep their gilt frames.