A Newfoundland Dog with Rabbit (1819)
(oil on canvas, 42.5" x 55.5")
by
Sir Edwin Landseer
This work, which is also known as The Champion and as Venus, a Landseer Newfoundland with a Rabbit, was painted by Landseer (1802 - 1873) when he was only 17 years old. According to Landseer expert Richard Ormond, this is the first painting by Landseer of the dogs that would later bear his name.
The work was commissioned by Sir Henry Dymoke, himself only 18 at the time, to commemorate his beloved dog Venus. (Men of Dymoke's family had for centuries held the hereditary title of "King's Champion," a ceremonial office that was part of royal coronations until 1821; it is on this basis that the painting acquired the informal title of The Champion —
it had nothing to do with the dog's show status, since dog shows were still some 50 years in the future at the time of this painting.)
This painting, first exhbited in 1819, was regarded as quite a success — not surprisingly, given that Landseer was already known as something of a child prodigy. This work reveals Landseer's precocious mastery of both anatomical accuracy and an ability to invest natural subjects with human emotion. Landseer painted most of his major dog subjects in the 1820s and 1830s; this work may safely be regarded as the first of those.