The Canadian scientist, David Suzuki , believes that all children need to bond with animals and if they haven’t the chance to connect with real animals then they will turn their attention to stuffed or cartoon animals to try to fulfil that inborn desire. He calls it a “grotesque” substitution. I think there is a lot of truth to Suzuki’s idea. Animals are part of creation and to live as we were intended to live, we need to touch the earth, plants and animals as well as other people to grow into well-adjusted adults.
I developed the opinion that children have a deep-seated need to relate to animals while watching my own kids interact with our pets and farm animals. Since I grew up in the city, with ballet lessons, books and only one loving cat, I was as fascinated as my kids with the arrival of tiny balls of fluff called chicks, cute piglets and tiny kittens.We all gathered around excitedly, not wanting to miss anything.
These artists seem to agree.
pere borrell del caso paintings -
Jules Bastien-Lepage, The Small Beggar Asleep, 1882
Sir Henry Raeburn Boy and Rabbit
William-Adolphe Bouguereau completed in 1889.
Fanny Brate (Swedish, 1861 – 1940) was a Swedish Impressionist who in 1880, at the age of eighteen was accepted at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts. She was forced to give up painting after her marriage but became a patron of the arts instead.
