Animals

On April 22, Sotheby's Paris presents the first sale devoted to one of the most universal themes in the history of art: Animals. As a primary subject in art, the representation of animals testifies to the importance of this ancestral relationship between animals and humans through all art forms, countries and eras.

Since prehistoric times, animals have been a major source of inspiration and creativity for artists. Wild or domesticated, real or imaginary, depictions of animals can be found in all civilizations, this omnipresence illustrating the strength of their symbolic charge. From academic 17th-century painting and the scientific representations found in the great works of natural science to modern and contemporary 20th- and 21st-century art; from 19th century animal sculpture to the symbolic representations of animals in the art of Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas, as well as the use of animal iconography in the decorative arts and jewelry of all eras, the inaugural sale of Animals will pay a masterly tribute to the animal kingdom in the universal history of art.