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Sunday 27 November 2011

Constable's Dog

No this is not about a police dog. Constable's famous painting The Hay Wain has a dog in the foreground as you can see in this photo of the oil painting we have on our wall.
The Hay Wain - Constable
The painting also appears on a postage stamp issued in 1968. In researching the stamp for my post British Art on Sunday Stamps I discovered that it was the first British stamp to include a dog. The stamp did not scan well enough or the dog to be seen.

Now all I need is to find out the breed of dog.

For those who contribute to Sunday Stamps this post is linked to here,

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Brought back memories of our visit two years ago. Entered the cottage, husband sat down, he's an invalid, only later when we left did we notice the sign about not sitting on the furniture!

Little Nell said...

Well this had me delving into my books on art, and was astonished to find no fewer than five books featuring this picture, none of which mention the breed of dog. However, my copy of ‘Annotated Art’ did feature a zoom-in of the dog, and I would say it’s probably a Springer Spaniel. The book says, “The dog is an essential part of the composition, leading our eye towards the focus of interest, which is the hay cart. It was added quite late in the development of the picture."

21 Wits said...

Oh my Bob, I have that exact painting myself, although of course mine is a copy, not the real painting and I received it as a gift many years ago. Now thanks to you I know all about it's beginnings! Thanks you so much! How cool is this! Very cool!

Joy said...

I've walked past there by the riverside once on holiday, still as pretty. Nice place to take a Spaniel on a walk:-)