Pet portraits: 15 styles to choose from, from royal hounds to Impressionist cats
Fifteen animal portraits by Landseer, Stubbs, Géricault, Manet and Rosa Bonheur, each the masterwork behind a Fable pet portrait style, for dogs, cats and horses.
For three hundred years, the best painters in Europe were paid to paint animals. Kings wanted their hounds on canvas, Queen Victoria wanted her spaniel, and racehorse owners wanted their champions. The result is a treasury of pet portraits, from the hunting dogs of Louis XV to the cats of a Brussels studio.
The fifteen paintings below are the masterworks behind fifteen of Fable’s pet portrait styles, chosen to cover dogs, cats and horses, big and small. You can order any of them as a print of the original, or send a photo of your own animal to the style and see a free preview of your pet painted the same way.
Dogs
Dogs were the first pets to be painted as individuals, with names and personalities. These are the portraits that set the standard.
1. Dignity and Impudence
Edwin Landseer, Dignity and Impudence, 1839. Oil on canvas. Tate, London.
Landseer’s most loved picture of two dogs: a huge, solemn bloodhound and a small, cheeky white terrier peering out of the same kennel. The title says everything. It is the perfect style for two dogs of very different sizes and characters.
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2. 'Fanny', a Favourite Dog
James Ward, 'Fanny', a Favourite Dog, 1822. Oil on canvas. Sir John Soane’s Museum, London.
Fanny was the beloved dog of Eliza Soane, wife of the architect Sir John Soane. After both Eliza and Fanny died, Soane kept this portrait in his house and gave the dog a monument in his garden. A little dog on a stone ledge, painted like a monument above a wide landscape.
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3. Hector, Nero, and Dash with the parrot, Lory
Edwin Landseer, Hector, Nero, and Dash with the parrot, Lory, 1838. Oil on canvas. Royal Collection.
Queen Victoria’s own pets, painted for her by Landseer in 1838, the year after she came to the throne: Hector the deerhound, Nero the greyhound, Dash the King Charles spaniel she had loved since childhood, and Lory the parrot. The grandest family-of-pets portrait there is.
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4. A Couple of Foxhounds
George Stubbs, A Couple of Foxhounds, 1792. Oil on canvas. Tate, London.
Stubbs painted these two foxhounds from life, one nose down on the scent and one looking up. It is quiet, precise and true, and one of Tate’s great animal paintings.
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5. White Poodle in a Punt
George Stubbs, White Poodle in a Punt, c. 1780. Oil on canvas.
A white poodle stands in a flat river boat, perfectly balanced and very pleased with itself. Stubbs painted it in about 1780, long before poodles were clipped for shows, and its coat is a cloud of curls.
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6. A Grey Spotted Hound
John Wootton, A Grey Spotted Hound, 1738. Oil on canvas. Yale Center for British Art.
John Wootton was the leading sporting painter in England before Stubbs. His grey spotted hound stands in profile in a wooded landscape, a classic hunting portrait of the 1730s.
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7. A King Charles Spaniel
Édouard Manet, A King Charles Spaniel, c. 1866. Oil on canvas. National Gallery of Art, Washington.
Manet painted a King Charles spaniel on a red cushion with the same bold, quick brush he used for the Paris crowd. It is modern, warm and direct: a portrait for a lap dog with presence.
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8. A Limier Briquet Hound
Rosa Bonheur, A Limier Briquet Hound, 1856. Oil on canvas. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Rosa Bonheur’s hound stands in a clearing, every muscle ready, painted with the precision that made her the most famous animal painter of her century. It now hangs in the Metropolitan Museum.
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9. A Terrier by a Rabbit Hole
George Earl, A Terrier by a Rabbit Hole, Late 19th century. Oil on canvas. Cooper Gallery, Barnsley.
George Earl painted Victorian dogs at work and at shows. His terrier sits by a rabbit hole, utterly focused. It is the style for a dog with a mission.
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Cats
Cats came late to portraiture, and mostly through one painter: Henriëtte Ronner-Knip. Kahler and Gallen-Kallela followed.
10. A Cat with Three Kittens
Henriëtte Ronner-Knip, A Cat with Three Kittens, 1889. Oil on canvas. Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands.
A black and white mother cat nuzzles a white kitten on a basket draped in crimson, while two more kittens look on. Ronner-Knip painted cats for fifty years, and nobody has ever done it better.
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11. Three Black Cats
Carl Kahler, Three Black Cats, Late 19th century. Oil on canvas.
Three black cats with yellow eyes sit on a gilded table among leather books, as if they own the library. Carl Kahler, the painter of My Wife’s Lovers, gives them all the grandeur of a council of state.
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12. Cat and Dog
Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Cat and Dog, 1890. Oil on canvas.
The Finnish painter Akseli Gallen-Kallela set a tabby cat and a black and white dog on either side of a winter stream, each sizing the other up. It is the style for a household where cats and dogs keep an eye on each other.
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Horses
Horses were the most expensive animals a family owned, and they were painted accordingly, by the best painters of the day.
13. A Grey Pony and a Black Charger in a Stable
Jacques-Laurent Agasse, A Grey Pony and a Black Charger in a Stable, 1804. Oil on canvas.
Jacques-Laurent Agasse was a Swiss painter who settled in London and painted animals for the aristocracy. A grey pony and a tall black charger share a stable, the light catching the pony’s silver coat.
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14. Turkish Horse in a Stable
Théodore Géricault, Turkish Horse in a Stable, 1811. Oil on canvas. Musée du Louvre, Paris.
Géricault loved horses more than anything, and painted them like heroes. His dark bay Turkish horse stands in a shadowy stable, its glossy coat and powerful body lit from the side. The Louvre owns it.
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A close-up
Sometimes the best portrait is just a face.
15. Brizo the dog
Rosa Bonheur, Brizo the dog, 1864. Oil on canvas.
We end with Rosa Bonheur’s Brizo, now in the Wallace Collection in London: just the head of a shaggy dog, eyes gentle behind its fringe. For any animal, a close-up of the face is the portrait that says the most.
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Choosing a style is the hard part, so here is a simple rule: match the painting to your animal’s character, not its breed. A dignified old dog suits Landseer, a busy terrier suits George Earl, a pampered cat suits Kahler. For more ideas, see our guides to custom dog portraits and custom cat portraits.
Questions
What is the best style for a pet portrait?
It depends on your pet’s character. Landseer and Stubbs suit dignified dogs and horses, Manet and Toulouse-Lautrec suit small lively dogs, and Henriëtte Ronner-Knip suits cats of every kind.
Can I include two pets in one portrait?
Yes. Several styles are painted after pairs or groups, such as A Couple of Foxhounds, Dignity and Impudence and Cat and Dog. Send one photo with both animals.
How does a pet portrait from a photo work?
Choose a style, send a clear photo of your pet and you will see a free preview. If you like it, order it as a print, a canvas or a digital file.
Who painted the most famous pet portraits?
Sir Edwin Landseer, who painted Queen Victoria’s dogs, George Stubbs, the great painter of horses, and Rosa Bonheur, the most famous animal painter of the nineteenth century.