beautiful drawings of animals by famous artists

Professionally Framed Albrecht Durer
(Rhino) Art Poster Print
13x19 with RichAndFramous Black Wood Frame

Imagen, it's 1640 and you are living in Amsterdam. A cold damp place with canals and narrow streets. It's the capital of Holland and as many a capital it this time, like Berlin and London, it build a zoo. To house all the exotic animals that where taken to Amsterdam from the travels to Indonesia and South America. It's different then for us, we've been brought up with picture books, full of animals like girafes, elephants and the Z for Zebra. But not 300 years ago. in the 16th centry an elephant must have been special and exotic. A grand beast with big tusks, ears and a trunk!!!


Elephant, 1637, Black Chalk Drawing
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Rembrandt van Rijn must have been impressed by the new and exotic animals of the zoo "Artis" in Amsterdam. Although there where lions in southern Europe during the Roman Empire. In the 17th century, they where definitely not running in the wild.
Rembrandt was an amazing painter who had the gift of drawing sketches very quickly but with precision and character. His pen and ink drawings are amazing. They are vivid and full off emotion . He was one of the most famous artists during his lifetime and after his death as well. This in contrast of Vincent van Gogh, a famous painter only after his death.
Rembrandt made several sketches of animals, and went regulaly to the zoo in Amsterdam which was in the same neighborhood as his studio.

Leonardo da Vinci loved to sketch cats and other felines. Around 1470 he worked on a series of different drawings relating to the theme of Maria and the Christ Child, holding a cat. The sketches are studies for a painting and is based upon a legend about a cat being born at the same time as the baby Jesus.
Other drawings with animals are based on the legend of Leda and the Swan. Leonardo made countless sketches of a swan but he actualy never finished the painting. The drawings of Leda and the Swan are beautiful though.

The Mountain of the Sacred mountain...
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The cat from Paul Klee is a funny cat, look she has one eye closed and she's dressed all in red. The painting is like a story. Dou you see the man with the big hat and the cape. Walking up the strange steps. And on the other side of the painting is a women she is dressed in red as well.
Mmm. what will happen if the man and the woman meet. Do they know each other, are they a couple ? The cat knows, cats always seem to know what's going on and have the latest gossip. Look at the smirk on the face of the cat. O yes, she's a streetcat although she looks quit sophisticated.


Cat and Bird
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A request by nsixx99, who is a dog lover through and through.

David Hockney is a fertile artist, who explored many subjects. from landscape paintings to swimming pools to dogs and 17th century paintings.
His book "Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters " is amazing and tells you how painters like Ingres, Rembrandt, Holbein and and many more possibly used Optical devices like lenses,mirrors and the camera obscura to create there stunning realism.
But that said, his ordinary drawings from his pets are incredibly touching. They are projecting such a feeling of innocent and fragility. He drew them, with craftsmanship but above all with love.

Four Centuries of Rajput Painting:
Mewar, Marwar and Dhundhar Indian Miniatures from the Collection of Isabelle and Vicky Ducrot

Tia2 asked me for a Iguana. Immediately I had to think about this drawing of M.C. Escher. Maybe it's a bit more crocodile-ish, hope you like it.

M.C. Escher became famous for his lithographs (stone prints) and drawings. His skills as a printer where exceptional. And close to Leonardo da Vinci, his work is printed all over the world. His complicated drawings with impossible perspective constructions are well known. Many book covers and cup,watches and t-shirts where a design of the Dutch artist.
M.C. Escher, made during his lifetime, 448 lithographs, woodcuts and wood engravings and more then 2000 sketches and drawings. He was left handed like many great artists as Leonardo da Vinci, Dürer, Holbein and me too....(although I'm definitely not that famous...)
Besides from being a graphic artist, Escher designed tapestries, postage stamps, illustrated books, and made some murals.
The most typical thin in the artworks of M.c. Escher is how he played with architecture, perspective and impossible spaces. Often nature plays an important theme in his work as well. The beauty of his work is that it is not only technical skill, but he has a vision as well. His works makes you wonder about the world you are living in and is in some respect a big question mark.

Reptiles Art Poster Print by M. C. Escher, 22x26

M. C. Escher
(Waterfall) Art Poster Print
22x26 Art Poster Print Art Poster Print by M. C. Escher, 22x26 Art Poster Print by M. C. Escher, 22x26

CASTLE OF ILLUSION Poster Print by Irvine Peacock, 24x36 Poster Print by Irvine Peacock, 24x36 Poster Print by Irvine Peacock, 24x36

The Courtyard
Fantasy Poster
(Size:
24'' x 36'') Poster Print by Irvine Peacock, 24x36

Explorer and colonial administrator Sir Harry Johnston painted this picture of okapi for a 1901 edition of the Proceedings of the Zoological Society in London. When the species was first described that year, it was named Okapia johnstoni after Johnston.

source : American Museum of Natural History