The Dog In Art

New acquisitions: The Dog In Art.

- Nick Waters

IT’S TESTIMONY to the importance of British artists to the genre of dog art that the work of the major ones is appreciated worldwide and that specialist exhibitions primarily show work by these artists.

This is true of this year’s annual Winter/Spring exhibition at the William Secord Gallery in New York, now the longest established gallery specialising in dog paintings. Of the 28 pictures on show in New Acquisitions: The Dog in Art, all but two are by British artists. Of the two that are not, one is a study of a Bulldog and Bull Terrier enjoying each other’s company by the French artist Philippe Rousseau and the other a Dandie Dinmont Terrier by the master of dog portraiture in America, Gustav Muss-Arnolt.

For those who like decorative pictures in the quintessential sentimental Victorian taste, there is a charming study of Spaniel puppies by B A Cole, an English School picture of a Yorkshire Terrier with a ball and another English School picture of a recumbent Black and Tan Toy Spaniel. Sir Edwin Landseer’s portrait of Queen Victoria’s Toy Spaniel Dash which he painted in 1836 created a demand for pictures of Toy Spaniels that lasted virtually until the end of the 19th century. Many were created by provincial artists and artists who never reached the heights, nevertheless their understanding of Toy Spaniels is evident in their work.