Irish Wildlife in Art: Wolfhounds, Red Setters, Hares and Puffins
Irish wildlife in art is a small, quiet tradition, and it runs from a Dublin animal painter of the 1800s to a puffin on a western cliff. The animals that turn up most often on Irish walls are the Irish wolfhound, the Irish red setter, the hare, the red deer and the puffin, and each of them carries more history than its picture suggests.
Ireland has no great school of wildlife painting in the way Britain had Landseer, so the subject is scattered through the work of sporting painters, garden painters, natural-history illustrators and photographers. That is part of the pleasure. Here is where to find the animals, and which prints from the Wild Life collection are worth a wall.
The dog painter from Dublin
William Osborne (1823–1901) was born in Dublin, began in portraiture and then settled into animals, mostly dogs and horses. He entered the Royal Hibernian Academy as a student in 1845, first exhibited there in 1851 and became a full Member in 1868. He was also the father of Walter Osborne, who is better known today; there is more on the son on our Walter Osborne page.
His portrait of the champion Irish red setter Garryowen, painted around 1880, is the best way in. The chestnut coat glows against a soft landscape and the dog stands alert but unhurried. It is a sporting portrait with a lot of restraint, and it suits a study, a hallway or any room with dark wood in it.
The wolfhound
No animal is more tied to Ireland than the wolfhound. It stands on the badge of the Irish Guards, whose regimental mascot is an Irish wolfhound, and it is the subject of an old Irish saying that the breed is gentle when stroked and fierce when provoked. The black and white framed portrait in the shop leans on scale and stillness rather than detail, which is how a big dog looks best in a hallway.
Hares, deer and puffins
The Irish hare is a distinct native animal, found here and nowhere else in a form quite like it, and it appears in Irish folklore as often as in the field. Our Irish hare photographic print catches one in open ground, and it works well in a kitchen or a bedroom where something calm is wanted.
The Irish red deer is the largest land animal in the country and suits a larger wall. Puffins are the bright one: they nest on cliffs and islands along the western and northern coasts, including the Cliffs of Moher and Skellig Michael. The puffin photographic print is a good gift for anyone with a connection to the coast; our guide to County Clare in Irish art covers the cliffs.
Birds in the natural-history tradition
Older bird pictures come from the natural-history tradition, where accuracy mattered as much as beauty. Charles Collins's 1736 plate, Two Wood Pigeons, is a watercolour and gouache study with a spare background, so every feather reads clearly. It suits a study or a library. Edward Henry Murphy's Paroquets goes the other way, with bright colour and a luminous sky.
Animals in the garden and the farmyard
Mildred Anne Butler painted the garden at Kilmurry in County Kilkenny for most of her working life, and animals wander into her genre scenes in an observational rather than sentimental way. A Preliminary Investigation is the example in the Wild Life collection; her artist page has the rest. If you prefer plants to animals, see Irish floral and botanical prints, and for the working animal on the road and the racecourse, horses in Irish art.
Hanging them
Animal prints do well in rooms where people sit for a while: a hall, a study, a kitchen. A single large wolfhound or setter can carry a wall alone. The smaller bird plates pair well in twos or threes. For the whole range, start at the Irish art prints hub.