(Above image courtesy of The Bowes Museum, UK)

In 2023, London’s venerable Wallace Collection museum hosted the exhibit 'Portraits of Dogs: From Gainsborough to Hockney', employing the charming hashtag #WallaceWoofs in its social media promotional efforts. David Hockney’s poignant 1995 painting of his beloved dachshunds, featured in the show, was actually a response to the loss of a dear friend, reminding how pets can be such a comfort to us in difficult times. We also particularly loved the self-portrait of artist Lucian Freud (grandson of famed psychoanalysis pioneer Sigmund Freud) getting cozy with his beautiful pet whippet. 

Later in 2024 one of our other favorite museums, New York’s Fotografiska, organized an exhibition titled 'Best in Show: Pets in Contemporary Photography'. The chronological proximity of the two exhibits could be taken as coincidence - but let’s face it, we have grown more and more in love with our pets these days, even taking them for hotel stays, and bringing them on airplanes with us for emotional support. 

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The exhibit was curated by actress Katherine Heigl, of 'Grey’s Anatomy' fame, and supported by her dog food brand Badlands Ranch. “Art and animals are my big passions,” she enthused to People magazine in an interview about the "pet project". (As if we hadn’t already guessed that.)

But the museum’s executive director Sophie Wright was absolutely spot on when she observed that, "'Best in Show' perfectly captures [through] photography [the] joy, mutual love, and the simple pleasures of companionship.” And dating back to the time of the cave dwellers (likely more than 15,000 years ago), humans have been ever enthusiastically celebrating that companionship in art. 

A 2023 study by the San Francisco based Public Library of Science asked children aged 7 - 11 to draw nature, and it turned out that mammals - including cats and dogs - appeared in more than 80% of the resulting drawings. (Sadly for amphibians and reptiles, the number was only about 15% - sorry guys!) But one need only to log on to the We Love Our Pets section of Etsy, to realize how much our furry friends inspire our creativity. 

What are some of the most notable examples of pets appearing in famous artworks?

One of our favorites is American painter Mary Cassatt's 'Little Girl in a Blue Armchair' from 1878. The girl of the title is indeed flopped down onto a comfy looking chair, but she has a slight sneer of dissatisfaction on her face which makes one wonder exactly what has just transpired. Was she just scolded by a parent? Did her mom forbid her to go out and play with her friends? Either way, she looks distinctly bored and unhappy, while her adorable little pooch is laying on the chair just opposite, surely without a care in the world. Haha.

For capturing the true beauty of that special, unwavering love between a dog and its human companion, though, French Impressionist painter Berthe Morisot's 1893 'Julie Manet and her Greyhound Laertes' could hardly be bested. One can literally sense the depth of their bond, and both seem to be enjoying a contemplative moment of absolute peace in each other's company. Talk about best friends...

19th Century Dutch-Belgian painter Henriette Ronner-Knip might ultimately be remembered as the “cat lady” of the Romantic era, with kitty-riffic works like 'Contentment' and 'Kittens at Play' still representing the pinnacle of feline adorableness. And playing to the old cliché about women of a certain age and their fondness for cat companionship, she didn’t actually turn to the subject in her work until well into her 60s. 

But many of the most acclaimed artists of the 20th Century also paid loving, sometimes truly amusing tribute to their fur babies. French Fauvist Henri Matisse, for instance, was also a cat enthusiast - especially when it came to his beloved Minouche and Coussi. His 1914 'Cat with Red Fish' depicts a bright yellow feline mischievously dipping a paw into the fishbowl - perhaps hoping to make a new aquatic friend?

One of the most incredible stories concerns the late Jean-Michel Basquiat’s 1982 'Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump' (Brooklyn slang for “fire hydrant”). The dog would make several other appearances in his work; but this one, completed when he was at the height of his creative powers, would go on to sell for more than $100 million at auction in 2020. That’s one pricey pooch!

Of course, no pet art is so iconic as American legend William Wegman’s photos of his beloved Weimaraners. Already a successful artist, by the early 1970s he started making short, conceptual videos starring his particularly handsome canine companions - and they have remained a pop culture sensation for more than five decades.

The saddest fact of pet ownership, surely, is that we are destined to outlive them - with the average life expectancy of a dog being 10 - 13 years, while for cats it is 12 - 18 (never mind hamsters, at just 24 - 36 months). So immortalizing them in pictures makes for a fitting tribute to just how much friendship and joy they bring to our lives during such a brief existence. 

As British artist Tracey Emin so lovingly put it, “My cat is my little soul mate.” And what could possibly be a greater artistic inspiration than that?