Art style of the late 19th century. Like realism it depicts only the visible reality. The artist strictly follows the natural model without any intention to interprete. Reality is shown lifelike without any idealization. Thus also motifs from ordinary people's life or from the working world belong to the popular themes of naturalism.
Animal representations are among the oldest motifs of human painting (as we find them in prehistoric cave painting) as well as of fine art.They inform us about the relation between man and animal in their time. However, pure animal images, where animals are not only symbolical attributes of the persons depicted, are a rather young development. In ancient times and in the Middle ages animals referred mostly to certain qualities of the depicted persons or they symbolized gods. In the Renaissance perception and representation of animals changed. A first high point of the representation of animals was the Dutch animal genre painting of the 17th century. In modern times it was the expressionist Franz Marc who created a great number of animal pictures.