Artists celebrate the beauty of animals in all shapes and forms. In our Animal Statue Collection, we offer an assortment of sculptures with horses, dogs, cats, polar bears, brown bears, frogs, birds and many others. We’ve even thrown a few “mythical beast animals” to remind you how animals are also present in ancient religions and mythology.
Often animal statues are placed in the garden to remind us of all the friendly wildlife in our world. Four puppies play in two barrels as water spills in this clever garden fountain. Wishing you could spot a squirrel in your yard? this statue has a lifelike tree trunk with a squirrel climbing down one limb.
One of the most popular animal sculptors is Francois Pompon who is known for his snow white statue of a smooth sided Polar Bear now in the Musee d’Orsay, Paris. Receiving encouragement from Rodin, Francois Pompon produced some stunning works such as the Polar Bear exhibited at the 1922 Salon d’Automne. The lumbering strength of the bear’s movement conveys its form, mass, and dimensionality, in a unique way but suggestive of Rodin’s earlier training. Pompon’s sculpture has a simplified sophistication that would become characteristic of modern sculpture in the early 20th century.
Salvador Dali adds animals to some of his paintings but a “Dali Twist”. This Salvador Dali statue of Rearing Horse (SD05, Parastone museum replica) is adapted from one of the figures in Dali’s painting The Temptation of Saint Anthony. The horse rears up on spindle legs as St. Anthony holds it back with a cross. Similarly, Dali’s Elephant (SD04, Parastone museum replica) has an unlike set of four very, very skinny legs.
The Monkey Holding Skull statue by Rheinhold (RHE01, Parastone museum replica) illustrates the chimp concentrating on a human skull which he holds in his hand while sitting on a stack of books. One of the books the monkey is seated on bears the Biblical quote: Eritis Sicut Deus (Genesis III, 5). ‘Thou shalt be as God’ which paraphrases the words the serpent spoke to Eve to entice her to taste the apple. Another of the books has the name Darwin, presumably referencing the legendary study by Charles Darwin “On the Origins of Species”.
Here are more statues depicting the beauty of animals from around the world. Through the ages, artists have turned to our natural world for inspiration. Some of these statues are lifelike, while others are more stylized or charming.
