Read the visual description
A long-haired, small white dog with tawny-brown ears and spots sits on a garnet-red cushion in this loosely painted vertical portrait. The dog looks just to our left with large, round, black eyes under perked eyebrows. Long, floppy ears hang to either side of its short muzzle. A snub black nose glistens over its downward curving mouth. The long fur on the dog’s body is painted with visible strokes in white and silvery gray. Its thin front legs are braced near a black and white ball, which rests at the edge of the cushion near the lower right corner of the composition. The background is coffee brown, and the artist signed the lower right corner with black paint, “ed. Manet.”
National Gallery of Art · Painting
A King Charles Spaniel
Edouard Manet
- Date
- c. 1866
- Medium
- oil on linen
- Dimensions
- overall: 46 x 38 cm (18 1/8 x 14 15/16 in.) framed: 66 x 57.8 x 8.9 cm (26 x 22 3/4 x 3 1/2 in.)
- Classification
- Painting
- Accession number
- 1970.17.36
- Credit line
- Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection
- Time span
- 1851 to 1875
- Department
- CF
Subjects and terms
- painted surface
- French
- Impressionist
- French Paintings of the Nineteenth Century. Part II: Impressionism and Post-Impressionism
- Dog
- portrait
- animal
- King Charles Spaniel
Provenance
Maurice Leclanché [1847-1921], Paris, by 1902 until 1910.[1] (Bernheim-Jeune, Paris), by 1910. Dr. Julius Elias [1861-1927], Berlin; by inheritance to his wife, Mrs. Julius [Julie] Elias, Berlin and Oslo[1866-1943]; [2] Eilif Moe, Lillehammer, Norway, by 1946.[3] (Frank Partridge & Sons, London); sold 1949 to (Wildenstein and Co., London, New York and Paris);[4] by whom sold 24 November 1958 to Ailsa Mellon Bruce [1901-1969], New York; bequest 1970 to NGA. [1]Published as Leclanché collection in Théodore Duret, _Histoire d'Edouard Manet et de son oeuvre_, Paris, 1902, no. 89; and again in Duret's _Manet and the Impressionists_, London and Philadelphia, 1910, no. 89. Not included in the posthumous sale of the Leclanché collection held in Paris on 6 November 1924. [2]Published as with Mme Elias in Jamot & Wildenstein, _Manet_, Paris, 1932, no. 128. This picture was not included in a 16 May 1933 sale of the Elias collection held in Brussels. Mme Julius [Julie] Elias emigrated to Norway with her son Ludwig, in 1938. Ludwig was deported to Auschwitz in 1942; Julie died of natural causes in Oslo in 1943. [3]Lent by Moe to 1946 Oslo exhibition. See letter from Kunstnernes Hus dated 16 December 1977 in NGA curatorial files. [4]Following Julie's death, three French Impressionist paintings were exported from Norway to relatives in the UK in 1949 with the help of her lawyer/friend Moe in Lillihammer. See Gabrielle Sokoll, "Julius Elias, Halvadan Koht and das jüdische Exil in Norwegen," Scandinavistik 21:2 (1991):116-130. Wildenstein acquisition date and source according to letter dated 14 December 1998, in NGA curatorial files.
Inscription
lower right: ed. Manet
NGA object ID 52180. Collection metadata is reproduced under CC0. This work is included because its NGA published-image record is marked open access; visitors should recheck the source record before substantial reuse.