French School, 18th century
Portrait of Two King Charles Spaniels
Oil on panel

Unsigned. 9 x 10 ¼ inches (23 x 26 cm), the frame 16 x 17 ¼ inches (41 x 44 cm). Ebonized frame with a gilt slip. Laid down on a later board and consolidated, with craquelure, old splits and losses.

Four eyes hold the viewer at once. Each one carries a single point of white at the top of the iris and an amber ring around the pupil, and the two dogs look out of a dark ground together.

They are brown and white, one lying at the left with its forepaws crossed and one seated upright at the right. Behind them the ground falls away to a band of yellow-green hills laid in with a loaded brush, touched with orange along the crest, under a dark green sky. The white of the chests is built up in grey, cream and beige with dry touches drawn over the top in the direction the coat grows, and the small pink nose of the lying dog is set down in a single stroke.