The Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature presents a tour of animal portraits, echoing the exhibition devoted to the Animaux du roi at the Château de Versailles.

Through works from the museum’s collections brought together for this event, a circuit through the rooms highlights the characteristics of animal depiction under the Ancien Régime.

Ranging from sketches to portraits, these objects emphasize the different aspects and challenges of animal portraiture at a time when there was a development from a Cartesian approach to animals to the evolving status of the animal seen more and more as the mirror of humans during the Age of Enlightenment.

François Desportes
Pompée
Oil on canvas
Dépôt de la Manufacture nationale de Sèvres
(c) musée de la Chasse et de la Nature, Paris – Sylvie Durand