Pipo, Portrait of a Soldier's Dog, Signed Gouache on Paper, France, Campaigns of 1914-1918

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 support showing through.

Gouache on paper, [dimensions à compléter], framed, signed lower right, French, circa 1918, in a gilt moulded frame with a linen mount and an engraved plaque.

A white 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 out from the paper, and the ears and a patch across the crown are chestnut brown. The muzzle is fine and the eye is dark and steady.

The ground beneath is a scatter of small stones drawn in pale blue, rose and grey, and the bank behind is left largely to the tone of the paper itself, with a few dry strokes of black and cream across it.

The frame is a gilt moulding with a linen mount and a brass plaque set into the lower edge reading PIPO du Lieutenant Chomette, Campagnes 1914-1918, with small gaps to the gilding.