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Apollo
Art Diary

Portraits of Dogs: From Gainsborough to Hockney

24 March 2023

This exhibition at the Wallace Collection in London (29 March–15 October) explores the variety of ways in which artists have sought to depict our most faithful four-legged friends over the course of history. Of the 50 works on display, highlights include a first-century Roman marble sculpture known as the Townley Greyhounds, which is thought to be the earliest representation of the Vertragus dog, a distant antecedent of the greyhound; Thomas Gainsborough’s Tristram and Fox (c. 1775–85), which famously hung above the artist’s fireplace; and a series of colourful portraits by David Hockney of his beloved dachshunds, Stanley and Boodgie. Find out more on the Wallace Collection’s website.

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Studies of a Dog’s Paw (c. 1490–95), Leonardo da Vinci. National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh

Dog Painting 41 (1995), David Hockney. Photo: Richard Schmidt Collection/David Hockney Foundation

Doubtful Crumbs (1858–59), Edwin Landseer. Photo: © The Trustees of The Wallace Collection