Animal Century

File:Portrait of a Long Hair Chihuahua.jpg

Portrait of a Long Hair Chihuahua (Prince Romeo) by M. Pishvanova

Animal Century (Animal Century by Maria Pishvanova) is an art collection with over 200 portraits of dogs, cats and other animals, portrayed in clothes. It was founded in 1989 by the artist Maria Pishvanova. There are portraits of more than 100 breeds of dogs and cats in the collection.

In 2007 the same-titled company based on collection was founded in Munich. The company produces art posters and various souvenirs with animal portraits.

History and recent years

File:Kitten in a Boot.jpg

Kitten in a Boot, 1989

The collection started with the painting "Kitten in a Boot", that Pishvanova created in 1989. She liked the result so much, that she decided to create more paintings, with animals and clothes as the main objects. The artist stated, that her inspiration for creating such portraits is celebrating art, fashion and animals.
Portraits from the collection are notable for their realistic style in depicting animals and clothing, combined with the individual visionary of the artist. The collection is regularly updated with new portraits.

Kingdom

At an Instagram page of Animal Century was developed an idea, that the collection is the base for creating an imaginary kingdom, where fairy-tale animals live - characters from portraits. There were posted a few portraits from the collection, supplemented by statements of "kingdom's residents".
Thus, the character named Prince Romeo (portrait of a long-haired chihuahua) has been defined, along with the Cat Queen and Mister Rabbit.

On 1st December 2011, the updated official site was launched. It is recently updated with articles, stylised as "press", or "gazette" of the Animal Century Kingdom, in which residents give interviews and write about their life. All articles are posted along with portraits from the collection.

External links

• Official Website
• Twitter Page of Animal Century
• Facebook Page of Animal Century