Edwin Landseer
, English, 1802-1873
Title
A King Charles SpanielDate1845
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions
35 x 35 cm
Signedlower right: Landseer E
Credit LineBequeathed, 1980
Object numberNGI.4333
ProvenanceBequeathed, Private Collection, June 1980Exhibition HistoryRecent Acquisitions 1980-1981, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 5 August - 27 September 1981Label TextLandseer was one of the most successful artists of the Victorian period. He specialised in painting animals and was also the sculptor of the bronze lions at the base of Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square. This picture may be a study for one of the two spaniels that feature in The Cavalier’s Pets (1845; Tate Gallery). King Charles II popularised Cavalier King Charles spaniels in the seventeenth century. Interest in these companion dogs was revitalised by Queen Victoria in the nineteenth century. Landseer, one of the Queen’s favourite artists, painted her pet spaniel, Dash, in 1838.