Gaston Simões de Fonseca (1874-1943)
Pipo, Portrait of a Soldier's Dog
Gouache on paper

Signed lower right G. Fonseca. 8 x 12 inches (20.5 x 30.5 cm), the frame 13 ½ x 17 ½ inches (34.5 x 44.5 cm). Gilt frame with a linen mount and an engraved plaque. Good condition.

The white of the dog is the only white in the picture, and it is laid straight over the warm tan of the paper. Everything else, the stones, the bank, the light, is the paper showing through.

The dog lies on stony ground, its body turned to the left and its head raised, ears alert, looking out past the edge of the picture. The coat is long and shaggy, worked in strokes of white and pale grey that stand off the paper, and the ears and a patch across the crown are chestnut brown. The ground beneath is a scatter of small stones in pale blue, rose and grey, and the bank behind is left to the tone of the paper, with a few dry strokes of black and cream across it.