Hounds and a Magpie
1740 · The Hermitage, St. Petersburg
otherDog portraiture began in France at the court of Louis XV, who commissioned portraits of his favourite hounds from Jean-Baptiste Oudry, and the genre has its origins in the art of venery, particularly the hunting scenes of Frans Snyders. In England, where the emphasis in hunting was increasingly being placed upon the performance of individual hounds, which led to intense rivalry among the landed elite, this was reflected in the paintings of John Wootton and Peter Tillemans; the former of whom in particular started to produce portraits of dogs in the mid eighteenth century. Fine examples of Wootton's work in this manner include the mock heroic portrait of Horace Walpoles favourite dog Patapan, painted in 1743.
