This ‘well-curated’ exhibition explores depictions of ‘our four-legged friends’ from the 17th century onwards
We British “love our dogs”, said Rachel Campbell-Johnston in The Times. And since at least the 17th century, British artists have shown equal enthusiasm for depicting man’s best friend. Thomas Gainsborough painted his beloved mutts and put their portrait in “pride of place” above the mantelpiece in his London house (following marital rows, he would also write to his wife in the guise of his dog Fox). Queen Victoria commissioned “dozens” of canine portraits from her favoured artists; and even the notoriously unsentimental Lucian Freud made many etchings of his whippet, Pluto.
