Portrait of Two White Spitz Dogs, Unsigned Oil on Canvas, 19th Century French School, Framed

Two white dogs are set against a dark ground, the larger seated with its tail curled along the earth and its head turned to the left, mouth open, the smaller standing close against its flank and looking straight out. Both have the pricked ears, pointed muzzle and heavy ruff of the spitz breeds kept as companion dogs in nineteenth century France. The white coats are the whole subject of the picture, worked in long soft strokes that follow the fall of the fur and carry a faint grey and ochre warmth in the shadows. Behind them, to the left, a break in the darkness opens onto a small landscape of trees against a green blue sky, painted much more thinly.

Dog portraiture was a well established genre in nineteenth century France, commissioned by owners in much the same spirit as a family portrait. Works of this kind were painted across the whole range of the trade, from Salon animaliers to competent provincial hands, and they are collected today for their directness. The painting is unsigned and carries no attribution. The canvas shows small losses of pictorial layer, visible in the photographs, and it is presented in a moulded gilt frame.