When I go to a museum or gallery I am always drawn to paintings with dogs in them. There could be a lot of other stuff going on in the art, but my eye seeks out the dog. Is it just me? I don’t think so.
Some art historians say artists used dogs to “anchor” the paintings, hold down the canvas, establish the foreground. Often dogs draw the viewer’s eye in, then sending the interest in the direction the dog is gazing.
Then again, there are, and always have been, artworks in which the dog is not just serve as an element of composition but the crux of the piece. Dogs have been a beloved subject in art history for centuries, serving as symbols of loyalty, status and deep companionship. From traditional hunting scenes to affectionate household portraits, artists have captured the unique spirit of man’s best friend across many eras and styles.
Some of the most famous and iconic classic paintings featuring dogs span centuries of art history, ranging from dramatic Victorian portraits to humorous American pop culture staples.
Here are some of them. Send us your favorite dog art and add to the collection.
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Cave Canem (1st Century AD) – Roman mosaic, artist unknown. A fierce, chained guard dog with bared teeth, accompanied by the Latin warning “Cave Canem” (“Beware of the Dog”), it was found on the floor of the House of the Tragic Poet in Pompeii. It proves that humanity’s love (and caution) regarding dogs has ancient roots.
Misse and Turlu (1726) — Jean-Baptiste Oudry: Just like Louis XIV, Louis XV liked to have his favorite dogs depicted in paintings and it is to Jean-Baptiste Oudry that he entrusted most of these works. Very involved in the process, the King even attended the sitting of these two animals in March 1725. This first portrait of royal dogs stands out for the elegance of the animals’ lines, the slender alert paws of Misse and the crossed paws of Turlu in a princely posture.
The Painter and His Pug (1745) – William Hogarth: Hogarth’s self-portrait rendered in an oval canvas next to his beloved pet pug, Trump. A witty play on portraiture where the pug shares similar spirited, feisty physical curves with the artist himself; the pug alludes to the artist’s own pugnacious character.
The Dog (El Perro) (c. 1819–1823) – Francisco Goya: A small dog’s head and front paws show, the dog appearing to gaze upward against a vast, empty ochre background, as if sinking into or peeking out of a void. Part of Goya’s dark, haunting Black Paintings originally painted directly on his dining room walls, this work is celebrated for its modern, existential mood.
A Distinguished Member of the Humane Society (1838) – Sir Edwin Landseer: Landseer was the preeminent dog painter of the Victorian era, famed for imbuing his animal subjects with deep personality and emotional weight.
This distinguished member was a heroic Newfoundland dog named Bob, who rescued dozens of people from drowning; he lies calmly on a pier beside the water. This piece turned the Newfoundland breed into a global symbol of loyalty and rescue.
Dignity and Impudence (1839) – Sir Edwin Landseer: A massive, calm Old English Mastiff named “Boxer” sits beside a small, energetic Scottish Terrier named “Scratch.” Who is who in the title is obvious.
Fidelity (1869) and Faithful (1869) — Briton Riviere: The British artist was known for his animal paintings – paintings of dogs in particular. He started painting them in 1865 with Sleeping Deerhound, and animal subjects then occupied much of the rest of his life.
“You can never paint a dog unless you are fond of it,” he told one publication. Both of these paintings emphasized the emotional, undying dog-human bond in his work.
Dogs Playing Poker Series (1894 /1903) – Cassius Marcellus Coolidge: Anthropomorphic hounds sitting around a card table smoking cigars, drinking, and exchanging sly glances (most famously A Friend in Need). The series includes 18 paintings depicting dogs playing poker. Though initially created as a commercial advertising campaign for cigars, these pieces grew into an enduring landmark of American kitsch and popular culture.
Dinamismo di un Cane al Guinzaglio (1912) — Giacomo Balla: The painting was related to “La Pittura futurista: Manifesto Tecnico” (The Technical Manifesto of Futurist Painters), which Balla wrote with four other Italian painters in 1910. A key tenet of their philosophy was that creative expression should represent the dynamism of the early 20th century’s fast-paced Industrial Age. This sentiment is reflected in both the title and the composition of the painting: a skittering dachshund and the paws of the dogs, feet of the woman and the leash all repeated to create the impression of speed.
Head of a Dog (circa 1930) — Edvard Munch: Known for his passionate psychological artwork – notably his intense The Scream – the Norwegian painter was passionate about his beloved dogs. Often they were his closest companions and only friends while he focused on painting. It’s even said that Munch would take his dogs to the movies with him – and if they didn’t like the film or barked at the screen, they left the theatre. Head of a Dog is one of the numerous examples of Munch painting and drawing the pups that meant so much to him.
Dog (1957) – Pablo Picasso (shown in top photo: A charming portrait of the dachshund called Lump done as a simple line drawing. American photojournalist David Douglas Duncan brought Lump to visit Picasso at his villa near Cannes. Lump immediately decided to move in with the artist. He lived with Picasso for six years, slept in his bed and followed him around the studio. He got along very well with Picasso’s other dog and pet goat. Lump appeared prominently in Picasso’s 1957 series based on Diego Velázquez’s Las Meninas, where Picasso replaced the original Spanish mastiff with Lump. Picasso also painted a portrait of Lump directly onto a dinner plate on the day they met, and featured him in numerous sketches and ceramics. Lump died on March 29, 1973; Picasso passed away just ten days later on April 8.
Pride of Parenthood (1956) — Norman Rockwell: Part of the artist’s The Four Seasons series. Depicting family life and homely scenes was a huge part of Rockwell’s work, and dogs often feature in these pieces. He once said that when painting our beloved four-legged friends, you should paint them “just as carefully and understandingly as you paint the people.” Pride of Parenthood shows a gleeful child surrounded by excited newborn puppies, with the pup’s mother sitting beside him.
Portrait of Maurice (1976) — Andy Warhol: Warhol’s connection to dachshunds centered around his two beloved miniature dachshunds, Archie and Amos. While he produced many pictures of the rich and famous, he would often suggest he could create a portrait of a pet, if someone was unwilling to sit for their own portrait. Maurice was the beloved dachshund of Gabrielle Keiller, who bequeathed her art collection to the National Galleries of Scotland in 1995. Maurice was the first painting by Warhol to enter the collection.
Dog (or Dog Barking) (1980-1985) Keith Haring: Early in his career, Haring began to incorporate dogs into his artwork. One of the most recognizable elements in Haring’s portfolio is his dog art, specifically the iconic barking dog symbol, emerging in a series of subway graffiti. Haring used his dog art as a symbol of oppression to encourage his audience to think critically about power abuses in daily American life. His dog art soon became a symbol of his work.
Women With Dog (1923) — Marie Laurencin. Laurencin wasn’t all that popular during the Impressionist period but I love her paintings of black-eyed sylphs with birds or dogs, such as Women With Dog (not to be confused with her Woman With Dog).
Symphony in Black (1923) — Erté (Roman Petrovich Tyrtov): The Russian-born artist frequently featured sleek, slender dog breeds in his Art Deco illustrations, sculptures and fashion designs to match the refined, elongated elegance of the era. The iconic dog featured in the famous Symphony in Black is a sylphlike sighthound, most commonly identified as a greyhound (or sometimes thought to be a borzoi) matched the elongated, aerodynamic lines of 1920s and 1930s high fashion.
