Dog Art Today

Veterans Day

"Recovered" by M. Henochsberg, 1869

I hate saying "Happy" Veterans Day because I think war is a sickening waste.  Nothing happy about it, except perhaps when the soldiers come home.  I hope our active soldiers can soon move into the ranks of the veterans and stay there.

I couldn't find out much about the above lithograph.   The Library of Congress simply states, "Wounded soldier lying on ground with two soldiers kneeling and dog sitting alongside him."

It was created in 1869 and depicts Civil War soldiers.  I wonder what its purpose was.  Drop me a note if you have any idea.

My local radio station KVMR is playing songs for veterans, many of them are anti-war.   Click here to listen to a live stream of it -- the best local radio station in the land (really).

The Artist's Wife and his Setter Dog by Thomas Eakins

The Artist's Wife and His Setter Dog by Thomas Eakins, ca. 1884-89

Dallas Art News reports:

The Amon Carter Museum has been loaned two American masterpieces from the Metroploltian Museum of Art in New York. The paintings are The Artist’s Wife and His Setter Dog (1884-89) by Thomas Eakins (1844-1916) and Lydia Crocheting in the Garden at Marly (1880) by Mary Cassatt (1844-1926). The paintings will be on view at the Amon Carter Museum through January, 25, 2010.“Both are intimate portraits of the artists’ loved ones, although the artists approached their subjects quite differently,” says Rebecca Lawton, curator of paintings and sculpture at the Amon Carter Museum. “Eakins depicts his wife and setter Harry with an uncompromising realism, while Cassatt portrays her ailing sister Lydia with the delicacy and directness of the Impressionists’ brushstroke.”

While these two paintings are in Fort Worth, the Carter has in return loaned two of its own masterpieces to the Met, Swimming (1895) by Thomas Eakins and Idle Hours (ca. 1894) by William Merritt Chase. Both paintings are in the Met’s exhibition American Stories: Paintings of Everyday Life, 1765–1915.

The Amon Carter will host free gallery talks about the Eakins and Cassatt paintings on November 12 at 6 p.m.

Lovely.

Alexander McCall Smith's New Dog Novel

Alexander McCall Smith by Iain McIntosh

The Dog Who Came in from the Cold, Alexander McCall Smith's sequel to Corduroy Mansions, will begin it's serialization, a chapter each week, starting Monday, September 21 at Telegraph.co.uk.  The Telegraph's Toby Clements interviewed McCall Smith and discovered the author prefers to think of these works as soap operas, not serials, that he aims at 80 chapters but only starts with 40 fleshed out, reader input is appreciated, and what I found most interesting, he is inspired by the late 19th century painters Pierre Bonnard and Edouard Vuillard, both artists who are known for featuring dogs in their art.   It appears that Freddie de la Hay, the titular dog in McCall Smith's new novel, descends from a long tradition of great dog art.  How cool is that?

Click here to read the full article.

Here are some of my favorite works from the Bonnard and Vuillard:

The Bathroom by Pierre Bonnard, 1932

Nude in the Bath and Small Dog by Pierre Bonnard, 1941-1946

Dressing Table and Mirror by Pierre Bonnard, 1913

Aux Pavillons à Cricqueboeuf. Devant la Maison by Edouard Vuillard, 1913

The Terrace at Vasouy, the Lunch by Edouard Vuillard, 1901

Interior at Saint-Jacut by Edouard Vuillard, 1909

Kimberly Merrill: Unleashed at Lora Schlesinger

Lenny

Kimberly Merrill's Unleashed show opens this Saturday, April 25 at Lora Schlesinger Gallery in Santa Monica.  It looks like a beauty.  The artist, a divorced empty-nester who decided to go to art school ten years ago and went on to get her BFA and MFA and now teach at Laguna College of Art and Design, became interested in the history of dog portraits and began her own series a year ago.  This is her first solo show.

What I like about her work is not just her mastery of oils, the high-wire act of painting, in my opinion, but also her return to the primal aspect of dog portraiture.  As she writes in her artist's statement:

I realized that even with the surge in representational painting today, animal painting as a genre, largely follows a Modernist aesthetic, and is rarely seen in fine art or academic art circles. I want to bridge the divide, both as an academic painter and as a dog lover and present dogs, not as one-dimensional stereotypes, but as living breathing spirits. In each painting, it is the domesticated individual, along with their wild heritage that I hope to capture and memorialize, and in doing so, bring the same dignity to them that they bring to our lives everyday.

Merrill's dogs have personalities, but they have animality too.  It is a delicate balance she manages with a stunning expertise, inspired, she says, by 18th century painter, Jean-Baptise Oudry, renowned for the soulfulness of his exotic animals in captivity.  I also see shades of one of my favorite 19th century dog artists, Monica Gray, one of the many painters Merrill must have seen in another of her inspirations, William Secord's book, Dog Painting 1840 - 1940.

Above all, I am inspired by Kimberly Merrill as an artist who found her passion by starting a new chapter in her life, and who is not afraid to look back several centuries in order to capture dogs anew. 

Lily

Napoleon

Chiquita

Whistler

Kimberly Merrill Unleashed at Lora Schlesinger runs April 25, 2009 - June 6, 2009. 

Visit Merrill's blog, Contemporary Canine, for more information.  She also paints pet portrait commissions and can be reached at 949-422-8508.  Having a Merrill original of your dog would be simply brilliant.  If you get one, I would love to see it.

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Jean-Léon Gérôme’s A Bashi-Bazouk and His Dog

A Bashi-Basouk and His Dog by Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1824 - 1904

I know the Orientalists are not always considered cool.  But I love the theatricality of Jean-Léon Gérôme and his dogs are spectacular.

This painting, A Bashi-Basouk and His Dog is one of the highlights of Sotheby's New York April 24, 2009 auction of 19th Century European Art Including Orientalist Paintings, Drawings and Sculptures.  Its estimate is $600,000 - $800,000.  You can view all the works starting April 18, 2009.  Visit Sotheby's for more information.

Art Knowledge News has a nice overview of the auction.

Related Links:
Fred Thompson: Nice Headshot
Happy Thanksgiving!

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Doyle New York Dog Art Auction

Head Study of an American Pointer by Maud Earl, 1932

Doyle New York’s 11th Annual Dogs in Art, Sporting Art and Wildlife Art auction on Tuesday will be held March 24, 2009.  The event, which used to take place during the week of the Westminster Dog Show in early February, has been pushed back to give dog lovers a chance to take in the art and attend their annual brunch benefiting Angels On A Leash Therapy Dog Program at Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital without having to miss any of the dog show.  From a look at the party pics of so many dogs and their people, it looks like waiting for spring was the right move.

All the art is on view at Doyle today and the auction is tomorrow at 1pm.  Click here for more details.  These are some of my favorites:

 

Mock-up for Scottie Show Poster by Marguerite Krimse, 1915

 

Waiting for Dinner by Thomas Earl, 1836-1885

 

The Dog Trainer by F. Sigmund Lachenwitz, 1820-1868

 

English Pointer by George Percy R.E. Jacomb-Hood, 1882

 

Your Future Told by Cassius Marcellus Coolidge, 1885

This last painting of the gypsy Chihuahua is especially interesting because the artist, C. M. Coolidge, is the man who would go on to paint the famous dogs playing poker series in the early 1900's.  You can see another one of his earlier dog art works here.  It's always fascinating to note the evolution of an artist, especially a dog artist who created perhaps the most iconic dog paintings in America that now sell for over half a million dollars.

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John Singer Sargent's Studio

John Singer Sargent, 1885

Photograph of John Singer Sargent in his Paris studio circa 1885.  Photographer unknown via the Smithsonian Institution photostream on flickr.  Note the large dog portrait in the upper left hand corner.

I wonder if this is where he seduced Louise Burckhardt (or she seduced him)...

Louise Burckhardt, Lady With The Rose, by Sargent, 1882

...and also painted Louise's dog, Pointy.  IMO, one of the greatest dog art works of all time...

Pointy by John Singer Sargent, early 1880's

Read more about the bittersweet love story here.  Pointy is also one of the stars in my short film, Dogs in Art.

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Bonhams Dog Art Sale: Puppies Triumph as Dow Plummets

 

Bounce by James Barenger, 1811.  Sold for $45,750.

With reports that the economy had taken its toll both on ticket sales and the number of dogs competing at this year's Westminster Dog Show in NYC, it's exciting (and fascinating) to hear that Bonhams' Dog Art auction sales were up.   The fact that Bonhams was the only dog art auction this week, since Doyle pushed back their annual dog art show until March 24 when the weather is better and the dog fanciers will not be torn between the championship finals and the art.  But given that the hammer went down at Bonhams on $810,000 total sales on the same day the Dow tumbled 381 points on news of Treasury Secretary Geithner's bailout plan, the power of dogs in art appeared indisputable.

The fact that they had many of the superstars of dog art helped too, with dog fanciers able to invest in excellent examples of works by blue chip artists.  The pack leader was John Emms's Hounds and a Terrier on a Bench which fetched $218,000.

Other highlights included:

 

Bob Finds a Covey by Percival Leonard Rosseau, 1920.  Sold for $42,700.

 

Rough and Smooth Basset Hounds on Oak Screen by Maud Earl, 1863-1943.  Sold for $26,840.

 

Old Bridge Bob by Herbert Thomas Dicksee, 1938.  Sold for $17,080, above its top estimate of $12,000.

The surprise of the day was the fierce bidding over one of the prettiest pictures, William Bruce's White English Terrier (below). It fetched $17, 080, more than double its top estimate of $6,000.

English White Terrier by William Bruce, 1903.  Sold for $17,080.

With the heights reached by Bruce's painting, it may be surprising to note that another sweet-themed painting, the auction's "cover girl," John Elsley's One at a Time failed to find a buyer.  But with an estimate of $300,000 - $500,000, the painting was perhaps too sentimental for such cold, hard cash.

One at a Time by John Elsley, 1901.  Still needs a home.

Overall, Bonhams was very please with the final numbers.  Director Charles O'Brien stated, "Even with a difficult and selective market, this year's sale brought more than $810,000, a higher total than the previous year, and proved that Dog Art is an endearing field of collecting - one in which we hope to continue to excell."   The sales total for last year's sale was $716,256.

But my favorite comment to sum up the day comes from Sharlene Spingler, one of the auction house's clients.  She wrote:

"What is interesting to note about [the] Best in Show sale is that it occurred on a day when the stock market sunk by 381 points!!!!!   Yet the enthusiasm for puppies did not fail. Rather it triumphed over economic adversity and the beautiful creatures were impervious to the temporal fluctuations of the stock market - leaving such fiscal ponderings to the minds of mere mortals!"  

Or to put it another way: Dogs rule!

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