Beloved pets are immortalized in many an English drawing room and this has been going on for generations. Today, as real dogs especially pedigreed ones stroll happily through the Central Park, their painted counterparts are hung against beautiful works in almost every single home in New York City. Portraits of pet dogs be they beribboned or with leather collars, at a playful stance or at a restful mode, there is no erasing the fact that these canvases have become so in demand thanks to the popularity of English style interior along with the longstanding devotion of people to the animals known as man’s best friend.
The Englishman’s dog has always been close to his heart and has often taken pride of a place over family portraits. Those he described as hunting, racing, shooting and doggy pictures have sold increasingly well since the auction house started to sell sporting paintings in 1961. The picture of a Newfoundland, a black and white dog favored by the prolific painter sold for record price for a dog painting by a sporting artist.
In the midst of 19th century and a few 18th century portraits, you are led to a different place in time. Basically, clients of these art pieces are those who tend to be associated with things beyond their social inclinations such as a wild game of hunting or maybe some wicked shooting with jackets and hounds and horses. An antiques dealer who is also an interior design believes that there are so many dog painting enthusiasts today, so she in fact, opened up a store in the bustling district of Manhattan. And what you can expect from the blue and white walls of this shop are a few horse and cow portraits but many dog paintings.
Two kinds of collectors come into the picture. The first type are the ones who avail the purchase for the sake of matching it with the real one they have as a pet. The other type are those people who know the dog’s breed and bodily structure so well that they want to verify if the portrait had done justice to the real dog. Sometimes, people prefer having dogs in paintings instead of live barking ones. You will not need to walk them or feed them every time they need to be fed. Having purchased his first couple of dog portraits when he was in a London trip, he thought of it as stupid but now he is just amazed at how it has become a very popular trend, not to mention a very profitable one.
The decorator now reveals that he’s got 75 dog paintings in possession, and some of them are displayed in his Manhattan apartment now, mostly hung with taffeta ribbons. It is the portrait quality and artist setting the price but despite of this emphasis made by many art specialists and dealers, individuals still aver that quite similar to the ever changing fashions of canines, some portraits are simply more sought after than the other ones. If Cavalier King Charles Spaniel paintings used to be the only in demand dog paintings, we can now see a growth of people asking for ones with West Highland Terriers, Scotties and Cairn dogs as subjects. By way of a portrait, a German shepherd can stay with you.
As per a man who sells dog paintings from his small space in Manhattan, the years 1850 to 1920 can be said to be the heyday of dog portrait trading. He remembers how so many people looking for King Charles spaniels, Chinese shar peis as well as portraits of terriers flooded him for a while. But he was flooded by requests for paintings of doberman pinschers, about 10 of them. Dobermans are a very recent breed, having been developed only during the late 1880s, and so this is why there have been no good paintings of them as he said he has never had a good Doberman painting ever in his midst.
The artist periodically holds special auctions of sporting paintings. Many of those bidding in the auction have decorated according to a famous fashion designer’s look, and then some stay in countryside houses capable of hunting and racing. A lady that works for a major TV station as an advertising account executive decided to go buy a painting of a Spaniel after getting mesmerized by a photograph which was in black and white. As she waited for her painting to arrive right from England, she purchased an adorable ruby red spaniel. The painting, after just 3 months, came to her and it was a dog that had coat colors of black and tan, a King Charles indeed but even if it was unmatched she kept both.
You’ll learn more about paintings when you check out pet portraits from photos. Further education on the subject of paintings can be found at oil painting of horses.