Q.
Many of us try our hands at drawing our beloved pups in pencil, pastel, paint. Some of us have little to no success. Which lucky dogs have been captured by artists of renown?

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A.

We’ll start with the Brussels Griffon featured below. Viewers continue to marvel at the remarkable realism with which Jan Van Eyck painted this furry companion in his 1434 Arnolfini Portrait. This most famous painting of Italian cloth merchant Giovanni Arnolfini, and his fancifully dressed wife Giovanna Cenami hangs at the National Portrait Gallery in London. The ready for action dog here is said to represent fidelity – ‘fido.’

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Whether symbolic or literal representations of loving loyalty, here are some other dogs who have found their way into fancy paintings.

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Lavinia Fontana. Portrait of a Noblewoman. 1580

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Diego Velázquez. Las Meninas. 1656

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Frans van Mieris. The Letter Writer. 1680

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Jean Honoré Fragonard. The Love Letter. Early 1770s

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John Hoppner. Princess Amelia. 1785

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Edwin Henry Landseer. A Distinguished Member of the Human Society. 1831

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Nicholas Toussaint Charlet. Head of a Dog. ~ 1845

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Rosa Bonheur. A Limier Briquet Hound. 1856

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Auguste Renoir. Le cabaret de la Mère Antony à Bourron-Marlotte. 1866

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Édouard Manet. Tama, the Japanese Dog. 1875

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August Renoir. Madame Georges Charpentier and her children. 1878

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Claude Monet. Portrait of Eugenie Graff (Madame Paul). 1882

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Thomas Eakins. The Artist’s Wife and his Setter Dog. 1884-89

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Berthe Morisot. Girl with Dog. 1886

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John Singer Sargent. Woman with Collie. After 1890

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Berthe Morisot. Julie Manet and her Greyhound Laerte. 1893

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Alexander Pope. At The Kennel Door. 1905

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Edvard Munch. In the Kennel. 1913

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Otto Dix. Hugo Erfurth with Dog. 1926

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Edward Hopper. Cape Cod Evening. 1939

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Frieda Kahlo. Self Portrait with Small Monkey. 1945

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Pablo Picasso. Femme au chien. 1962

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www.justcurious.ca

Header Art:
Jan Adam Kruseman. Portrait of Alida Christina Assink. 1833