Discovering Louis Renard: Beautiful Fish Illustrations Now Free to Print

These fantastical fish paintings by Louis Renard are some of the most colourful and quirky vintage marine illustrations around. Originally published in the early 1700s, these tropical fish prints are now in the Public Domain and free to download, making them perfect for coastal decor, gallery walls, junk journals, decoupage, and ocean-inspired crafts.

It’s quite hard to believe these wonderfully colourful fish paintings were first published over 300 years ago. Created by Louis Renard in 1719, the illustrations still feel surprisingly bold, quirky, and modern today.

The paintings come from the beautifully titled book Poissons, écrevisses et crabes, de diverses couleurs et figures extraordinaires, que l’on trouve autour des Isles Moluques, et sur les côtes des Terres Australes. Thankfully, most people shorten that to simply Renard’s Book of Fish. The title translates as Fish, Crayfish and Crabs Found Around the Molucca Islands and on the Coasts of the Southern Lands.

The First Colour Fish Illustration Book

Louis Renard’s collection is believed to be the first published book filled with colour illustrations of tropical fish and marine life. At the time, Europe knew very little about the creatures living in the waters around the East Indies, so these images must have seemed almost unbelievable to European readers.

And honestly, some of them still do.

The fish paintings are packed with dazzling colours, strange patterns, dramatic fins, and wonderfully exaggerated details. Some species were based on real fish, while others seem to have drifted firmly into fantasy territory. There’s even a mermaid hidden amongst the collection. The Biodiversity Heritage Library rather brilliantly refers to it as “Renard’s Book of Fantastical Fish”.

Fish Paintings With A Touch Of Fantasy

One of the most fascinating things about these illustrations is that Louis Renard never actually travelled to the East Indies himself. Instead, he compiled the book using drawings, notes, and paintings created by sailors, merchants, and artists working in the region. Many of the fish illustrations were based on drawings by Dutch artist Samuel Fallours, who worked in Ambon in the East Indies for the Dutch East India Company.

Along the way, scientific observation seems to have mixed rather freely with imagination and storytelling. The result is a collection that sits somewhere between natural history study, travel tale, and fantasy art. That slightly odd mixture is exactly what makes these vintage fish paintings so fascinating today.

Free To Download Marine Art

Whatever the scientific and historical value of this vital work of Louis Renard, the antique fish paintings are stunning; the colours are so vivid.

I’ve been snorkelling around some of the few remaining protected coral reefs in the East Indies. I was blown away by the marine life I saw. However, none of it was as impressive as these fish paintings, and I didn’t see any mermaids.

Most of these fish paintings are actually from the third book of Louis Renard, “Natuurlyke Historie” (1782), published in Holland.

These antique fish paintings are so beautiful, though; I will be downloading and printing a collection myself to make a lovely gallery wall display in my home.

I’ve gone one better by displaying these antique fish paintings by Louis Renard in a unique way with this IKEA floor lamp hack, and I’ve used them for a fun under-the-sea collage in a porthole.

The downloaded fish paintings will be of a higher resolution than the images below.

To download the antique Fish Paintings, click on the highlighted title link, and a larger image of the fish will open in a new window in your browser. You can then print this image or save it to your hard drive.

Fantastical Fish Prints 1-10

Print 1. Eight Assorted Fish

Assorted striped, spotted, and brightly colored tropical fish on an antique Louis Renard rainbow fish sea life illustration vintage natural history print.

2. Four Colourful Fish

Four wonderful large fish from an Ikan-Poeti to a Paffer.

3. Angel & Spotted Fish

Angelfish, spotted fish, long needlefish, and small red and blue tropical fish.

4. Striped Wrasse

Plate of striped wrasse, long needlefish, and rounded tropical fish in pink, blue, yellow, and brown.

5. Puffer Fish

Colourful pufferfish, black patterned angelfish, and assorted tropical fish.

6. Spiny Fish

From a Ifer Varken to a Byouw. I love the spines on the Louw.

7. Five Tropical fish

8. Piperfish

9. Large Black and White Fish

10. Flying Fish

Fantasitical Fish 11-20

11.Seahorse

12. Ribbon-Like Fish

Red-scaled fish, ribbonlike fish, small tropical fish, and a long-tailed angelfish.

13. Diamond-shaped fish

14. Brightly-striped Angel fish

15. Silver Blue Fish

16. Butterfly Fish

Flying fish and two vivid butterflyfish with red, blue, yellow, and black markings.

17. Four Louis Renard Fish

18. Five Tropical Fish

19. Red Striped Fish

20. Colourful Wrasse

Fantastical Fish 21-30

21. Black Yellow Fish

22. Long-tailed Angel Fish

23. Round Striped Butterfly Fish

24. Six fish

Six fish, including silver, yellow striped, red, brown, and blue tropical species, on a Louis Renard rainbow fish antique sea life illustration.

25. Tan Spotted fish

26. Magenta Striped Fish

27. Assorted fish

28. Long-Finned Angel Fish

29. Three Colourful Fish

30. Blue Fish & Crab

Fantastical Fish Prints 31-45

31. Fish & Crustacean

32. Flying fish

33. Fish with text

34. Fish with Text

35. Vertical Fish

36. Large Black Fish

Vertical plate with large black fish, striped yellow fish, and smaller colourful sea creatures.

37. Crowded Fish Plate

38. Large Green Fish

39. Spiny & Striped Fish

40. Blue, Green, Red & Yellow Fish

41. Red Spotted Fish

42. Fish, Crab & Lobster

43. Large Blue Green fish

44. Crustacean

Crabs, lobster, shrimp, and a small spiny fish.

45. Mermaid

Mermaid-like sea figure, long ribbonfish, and ornate lobster

Louis Renard Vs Marcus Bloch Fish Illustrations

Unlike the wildly colourful and sometimes imaginary fish paintings of Louis Renard, the fish illustrations of Marcus Elieser Bloch were far more scientific and realistic. Renard’s tropical fish often look theatrical, with exaggerated colours and fantastical details that blur the line between natural history and fantasy art.

Bloch’s illustrations, published later in the 18th century, focused on accuracy and classification, carefully documenting fish species in a more restrained, natural style.

Together, the two collections show the fascinating shift from the imaginative curiosity of early natural history art to the more precise scientific illustration that followed.

Other Related Posts

I have selected some of the most colourful fish paintings to create a fun rainbow fish display for my home.

If you like these fish paintings, you may want to check out some of the hugely popular Natural History Posters by Adolphe Millot and the vintage nature posters by Oliver Goldsmith. Additionally, there are some beautiful Japanese woodblock fish prints and Jardine’s Fish Prints.

If it’s antique marine life that you are interested in, check out these Natural Sea Life posters and vintage octopus illustrations, vintage jellyfish prints and conchology prints (seashells).

It’s the amazing colours of these antique fish paintings that appeal to me the most. They are very vivid, just like these antique coral reef prints of William Saville-Kent. Or even the nature form prints of Ernst Haeckel.

The complete collection of free educational posters on Pictureboxblue is available here.