The genre of Portraiture in Western culture has traditionally been linked to the human species; documents of specific individuals within historical/cultural contexts, executed for specific audiences and represented through various stylistic tropes. Integral to this genre is the beholder’s response; a tripartite transaction is created between the artist, the subject and the viewer. The imaginative transaction establishes connotations in the mind of the beholder regarding their relationship to the work which are especially sensitive to changes in the perceived nature of the individual in society.

These factors are not necessarily perceived as a given for animals. I many ways animals are perceived as an a-historical element rather with metaphoric or symbolic associations. Being perceived as an individual with a specific identity is seldom bestowed upon the represented animal subject.Prior to the Industrial Revolution animal portraits documented primarily ‘famous’ exotic animals and the pets of the aristocracy. Portraits of livestock also appeared as representations of the owner’s wealth and status. John Berger’s well known writings on the disappearance of animals from ordinary life describes the impact of industrialisation on certain animals. Increasing objectification and ‘othering’ led to the domestic animal, in Western societies, being polarised as either commodity on the one hand or pampered pet on the other. Notably wild animals have consistently been regarded as ‘exotic’ although this did not exclude them from being commodified. In Western Post-Industrial societies certain tropes of representation have persisted but new ones have also been introduced, most notably through the recognition of imminent extinction for some animals and environmental factors for others.