Paying a Pretty Penny for a Portrait of Man’s Best Friend

We are a nation besotted with our dogs. We feed them gourmet treats, dress them in tiny clothes, take them to the best doctors and even lay them to rest under hand-carved gravestones. But our devotion, however intense, pales beside that of the British, who for centuries have elevated canine adoration to an art form.

Small wonder, then, that for the third straight year during New York’s famed Westminster Kennel Club pooch-a-thon, Doyle New York will join Bonhams & Brooks of London for a “Dogs in Art” auction. The Feb. 13 sale takes place at 1 p.m. at Doyle’s Manhattan showroom. (You can leave bids online, but no real-time bidding is allowed; https://www.doylenewyork.com.)

“It’s fairly serious business. The people in England look at these as serious paintings, portraits of dogs by established Victorian artists,” said Alan Fausel, Doyle’s paintings specialist.

The works--most of them from the 18th and 19th centuries--were commissioned by people “serious about their breeding. It is as important to them about horses and dogs as it is about families, to be able to point to bloodlines,” said Fausel.

Despite this auction’s focus on the more recent past, including some 20th century works, doggie depictions have been with us for millenniums.

“Certainly the image of the dog appears on Roman mosaics and red-figure Greek vases. And you have mastiff-type dogs on Babylonian bas-relief. It is centuries old,” said William Secord, author of two books about historical dog paintings and the owner of a New York gallery bearing his name that deals exclusively in canine art.

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But the genre of dog painting took off in the 18th century and reached its zenith in 19th century England, said Secord, noting that demand was driven by three sensibilities: dogs as cherished pets, as superb physical specimens and as sporting animals.

One of the world’s most influential pet fanciers was Queen Victoria--whose tastes ruled over the then-vast British Empire.

“She had 80 or 85 dogs at any one time in her kennels at Windsor Park,” said Secord. “She is best known for her King Charles spaniels, but Pomeranians and collies were her favorites. She had portraits of all these dogs painted and her favorite artist was Sir Edwin Landseer. He was her animal painter in the Scottish Highlands, by royal appointment.”

The second factor driving demand was the 1873 founding in London of the Kennel Club. Its focus on physique and lineage inspired countless portraits of purebreds. Simply stated, said Secord, “in dog shows, the best-looking dog won the prize.”

The third force, which began in the 18th century and flowered in the 19th, was the ascendancy of the sporting dog as a subject for art.

“The important thing was not how it looks, not how it behaves as a pet, but how a dog performs in the field,” the author said. “I would include English pointers on point, English setters in the field and also foxhounds hunting, even though a foxhound is not a sporting dog.”

Unlike today’s pet portraitists, who paint from photos as well as live sittings, the early masters had no mechanically reproduced images on which to rely. Rather, they had to establish a singular rapport with their subjects. The more obedient the dog, the easier the task, of course.

“Maud Earl, who was a 19th century artist, had a type of huge lazy Susan. The dog would sit and she would turn it slightly. She loved dogs and had an amazing relationship with them,” said Secord.

Contemporary Belgian artist Thierry Poncelet solved the fidgety Fido problem by scouring flea markets and junk shops for period ancestral portraits. He’d replace the human heads with those of dogs. Four Poncelets are in this sale, including a “Spanish Senorita” spaniel in a black dress, whose pre-sale estimate is $4,500 to $7,500.

What influences prices today, whether at auction or in galleries, is the quality of the work and prominence of the painter, said Secord. “In the 18th century, it was George Stubbs. In the 19th, it was Landseer.”

Indeed, a picture of a Newfoundland by Stubbs--chiefly known as a brilliant painter of horses--sold at auction for $3.6 million in 1999. And a Landseer painting of a dog named Neptune went for $500,000 in 1989, said Fausel. There are no Landseers in this year’s sale, although several artists are described as a “follower of” the great man.

Another hot artist is John Emms (1841-1912), who specialized in hunting hounds. Nine of his works will be on the Doyle block, with pre-sale estimates ranging from $7,500 to $60,000. At last year’s auction, an Emms sold for $140,000.

Many collectors of dog paintings are owners seeking specific breeds. “We find that the strongest competition is for setters and pointers, the sporting dogs and some of the smaller breeds like the King Charles spaniel, the fox terriers and the Jack Russells, which are not really an (American Kennel Club) established breed,” said Secord of the national canine organization founded in 1884.

Over the past 15 years, many Secord clients have sought pet portraits rather than purebred or sporting pictures, owing to the fact “that people acknowledge how important dogs are in their lives.”

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Not all collectors of dog art--which includes bronze sculpture, plaster bas-reliefs, silver trophies, porcelain crockery and crystal figurines--are dog owners.

“I’d never keep a dog in the city,” says New York decorator Mario Buatta, who bought his first canine paintings in 1963 in London, “Topsy and Topsy’s Mother.”

“I made cushions out of the canvases. They were very inexpensive. I used to buy incredible paintings. A good-size picture would cost $300, and now the same picture would be $20,000 to $30,000. It’s a case of supply and demand,” he says.

Buatta has more than two dozen dogs--mostly spaniels--arrayed in what was his library. “I would never think of putting ancestors on the wall,” he said. But dogs “give a room a little whimsy. I love them. People did paint their pets in Victorian times, and you could tell the houses they came from by the wood paneling or the furniture in the background.”

He knows he started collecting before the market exploded. “I don’t have anything fancy. I have ‘in the style of’ or whatever. I really couldn’t afford to buy that caliber of painting when they were being offered. Today, you can’t touch them unless you’re serious. And I ain’t too serious.”