Dogs
Dogs in Famous Paintings
From pampered lapdogs in royal portraits to working hounds in the field, dogs have padded through art history for centuries — loyal, watchful, and endlessly painted. The best dogs in the collection, up close.
20 details · cropped from original museum images
What these details mean
Why painters kept putting dogs in the picture:
- Loyalty & fidelity
- A dog at a couple’s feet signals marital faithfulness — the root of the word "fido."
- Status
- Lapdogs and pedigree hounds marked the sitter’s wealth and noble leisure.
- The hunt
- Working hounds stood for aristocratic pastime, skill, and dominion over nature.
- Vigilance
- A watchful dog could symbolise guardianship, faith, or the senses (smell).
white hunting dog (setter)
Thomas Doughty · Landscape with Dog
Art Institute of Chicago
white hunting dog guarding game
Jean-Baptiste Oudry · Dog Guarding Dead Game
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
right hunting dog (black and white)
Gustave Courbet · Hunting Dogs with Dead Hare
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
small dog on lap
Eugène Carrière (French, 1849–1906) · Portrait of a Lady with a Dog
Art Institute of Chicago
Small dog being held
Giacomo Ceruti · A Woman with a Dog
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Large dog leaning against her
Anders Zorn · Mrs. Walter Rathbone Bacon (Virginia Purdy Barker, 1862–1919)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
white dog
Anders Zorn · Sappo
Art Institute of Chicago
dog on the lap
Adriaen Brouwer · A Peasant Woman Picking Fleas off a Dog
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Aggressive black dog barking
Briton Riviere · Pallas Athena and the Herdsman's Dogs
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
large black dog
Henry Raeburn (Scottish, 1756–1823) · Eleanor Margaret Gibson-Carmichael
Art Institute of Chicago
Faithful large white dog
Bartolomé Estebán Murillo · Don Andrés de Andrade y la Cal
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Black spaniel
François Hubert Drouais · Boy with a Black Spaniel
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
head of the dog
Edwin Henry Landseer (English, 1802–1873) · Wounded Stag and Dog
Art Institute of Chicago
Small dog being held
Giacomo Ceruti · An Old Man with a Dog
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
black dog at the feet
Édouard Manet · The Man with the Dog
Art Institute of Chicago
Sheepdogs braving the wind
August Friedrich Albrecht Schenck · Lost: Souvenir of Auvergne
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
large dog in foreground
Narcisse Virgile Diaz de la Peña (French, 1807–1876) · Three Little Girls
Art Institute of Chicago
Sitting hunting dog
Workshop of Diego Velázquez (Spanish, 1599-1660) · Portrait of Philip IV
Art Institute of Chicago
small white dog on lap
Francesco Montemezzano · Portrait of a Woman
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
spaniel dog looking up
Sir Thomas Lawrence · Lady Maria Conyngham (died 1843)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art