Animal painting was a subject of excellence within academic art. At the turn of the twentieth century, the animal became a vehicle for successive avant-garde movements. Other artists regarded it as a subject of study capable of revolutionising aesthetic experience, particularly through an interest in hybrid species and animal specimens traditionally relegated to the category of monsters, as seen in the work of the Surrealists. Through these new subjects of observation, one also perceives the evolution of a more humanist society, driven by a profound re-examination of the position of both humans and animals within the broader community of living beings.

This exhibition presents works from two collections of the Fondation Gandur pour l’Art: the archaeology collection, featuring amulets and an inlay representing the canine god Anubis; and the fine arts collection, with works by Karel Appel and Guillaume Corneille.