A much anticipated and truly magnificent exhibition of dog portraits – postponed due to the pandemic in 2020 – will finally go on display at The Wallace Collection this year (29 March – 15 October 2023).
Portraits of Dogs: From Gainsborough to Hockney explores our devotion to four-legged friends across the centuries. Through carefully selected paintings, sculptures, drawings, works of art and even taxidermy, the exhibition highlights the unique bond between humans and their canine companions.
Dog portraiture developed as an artistic genre contemporaneously with its human counterpart – dogs are represented in the earliest cave paintings alongside humans – and it flourished, particularly in Britain, from the 17th century onwards. More than any other nationality perhaps, the British have both commissioned and collected portraits of dogs.
Image credit: Edwin Landseer, Doubtful Crumbs, 1858-1859 © The Trustees of The Wallace Collection
Bringing over 50 works of art to Hertford House, Portraits of Dogs presents a broad range of portraiture showing dogs in all their different shapes and sizes, with each painter or sculptor challenging themselves how best to represent mankind’s most faithful and fearless friend.
For further information and to book: https://www.wallacecollection.org/art/exhibitions-displays/portraits-of-dogs-from-gainsborough-to-hockney/
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