Animal painter

[3] Especially in the 17th century, animal painters would often collaborate with other artists, who would either paint the main subject in a historical or mythological piece, or the landscape background in a decorative one.

[4] The paintings by Snyders and his workshop alone typically lack humans, except in kitchen scenes, and usually show a number of animals of different species (or breeds of dog).

Mainly in England, there were still more specialised painters from the 18th century who produced portraits of racehorses and prize specimens of livestock,[6] whereas in France animal subjects continued to be decorative capriccios often set around garden statuary.

In 2014 Jonathan Jones of The Guardian proposed The Goldfinch (1654) by Carel Fabritius (1622–1654) as the finest animal portrait;[7] this was not the artist's normal subject matter at all.

Many earlier examples can be found, but animalier sculpture became more popular, and reputable, in early 19th century Paris, with the works of Antoine-Louis Barye (1795–1875) - for whom the term was coined, decisively, by critics in 1831[8] - and Christopher Fratin (1801-1864).