We often talk about our profound love for dogs and have honoured them in a number of our designs. This week we ventured to The Wallace Collection to view their latest exhibition: Portraits of Dogs: From Gainsborough to Hockney. Join us as we share some of our favourite finds…
The Edwin Landseer portraits caught our eye for their incredible detail but also their comical elements. This is the ‘Laying down the Law or Trial by Jury’ painting. Various dog breeds characterise court officials with many dogs displaying expressions of boredom – we love the opodle representing the court judge with its curly hair being a direct comparison to a judge’s wig!
This painting of a shepherd’s dog by Rose Bonheur (1864) was just too adorable not to mention! We love the soft colour palette and the incredible definition of the wispy hairs catching the light on the dog’s face.
It was very special to see such a large collection of Queen Victoria & Prince Albert’s etchings and drawings. It gives a glimpse into their personal lives and an endearing imagery of them sat together working away with their Skye terrier, greyhound and dachshund dogs as their muse.
In contrast, were David Hockney’s more vibrant and contemporary paintings of his two dachshunds, Stanley and Boodgie. We love how colourful they are!
After going through the ‘Portraits of Dogs’ exhibition, we noticed another exciting display: The Queen and her Corgis. A heart-warming collection of photographs of her late majesty throughout the years with her beloved pups. She famously built a close association with the Pembroke Welsh corgi, a fearless hearing breed, owning over thirty of them during her reign. A very special corgi named Susan, a gift on Queen Elizabeth’s 18th birthday, was mother to a full lineage of dogs that the Queen owned. Traced out through a family tree all the way down to the last litter. Queen Elizabeth kept the same ancestry of corgis for 74 years!
We hope you’ll get a chance to visit The Wallace Collection in London to enjoy these exhibitions. Explore how we celebrate our love of dogs through design, in our blog post: For the Love of Dogs.