By spotlighting the depiction of animals in the period between the two World Wars, the museum is unveiling a new perspective on the many expressions in the plastic arts of this rich artistic period.

In the 1970s, acquisitions and many gifts enabled the museum to become a pioneer in the rediscovery of artists from the Roaring Twenties and the return to order of the 1930s, and now it is able to mount a large exhibition on the theme of animalness.

The varied forms, exuberant colours and the disparity of textures makes animals a good subject for modern interpretation.  The theme is explored infinitely in many media: painting and sculpture, of course, but also architecture, furniture, wallpaper and decorative objets d'art.  Pets are featured, but it is primarily wild beasts that triumph. Fawns, monkeys and snakes are evidence of the fad for exoticism maintained through colonial influences and by the travels of the artists themselves.

From Jouve's naturalistic expressiveness to the primitivist synthesis of Lambert-Rucki, by way of Vernon's spare Art Déco style, a motley fauna is on display at the Museum.