American & European Art

Proud of the strong breeding of their dogs, owners commissioned portraits that, taking cues from scientific illustration, show their dogs in full body and strict profile to highlight the animal’s conformity to the definition of the breed. Artists including Herring were glad to meet the demands of this new market.

Herring was known primarily as a painter of horses, but the present portrait of a greyhound shows his exceeding competence in depicting other animals. Indeed, Herring took this compositional strategy, used for in all manner of animal portraits of the nineteenth century from dogs to cows to pigeons, and elevated it: in the image, the greyhound stands erect and regal in a picturesque landscape, recalling Anthony van Dyck’s famed portrait Charles I at the Hunt (Musée du Louvre, Paris). Note especially the subtlety of the sky and the active brushstroke in the landscape, that all compliment the curving forms, coat texture, and musculature of the dog.

The sport of coursing with greyhounds made great strides in the early nineteenth century, and by this time the pedigrees of these dogs were kept with the same care as horses. The owner of Clio would surely have been moving in the highest circles of dog breeding and exhibition and so commissioned a portrait of her to match that status. 

Acquired in a London gallery decades ago, the painting has been a much-admired focal point of the Scaife collection ever since.