Resting Dog (Poodle)

Resting Dog

French, last quarter of the18th Century
Circle of Claude Michel Clodion (1738 – 1814)
Terracotta

H 27,5 x W 36,5 x D 25 cm
H 10 4/5 x W 14 1/3 x D 9 7/8 inch


The outstanding image of the portrayed poodle dog immediately recalls a notorious work by Claude Michel, also known as Clodion (1738-1814), Monument of a dog (terracotta), now at the Cognaq-Jay museum in Paris, and owned by Joacques- Onésyme Bergeret de Grandcourt, then lost in 1785 (reported on the post mortem inventory precisely as: Guilhem Scherf, published on Clodion 1738 -1814., exhibition catalogue – Paris, Louvre museum – by Anne L. Poulet, Guilhem Scherf, Paris 1992, pp. 292-295, cat. 60). Clodion also did model another funerary monument portraying a dog (signed as the aforementioned model), Mauselum of Ninette (Nancy, Musée historique lorrain), datable around 1772-73 as the one previously mentioned (Scherf, on Clodion, pp. 296-99, cat. 61). Clodion portrayed both dogs giving them the looks of griffon dogs, which race is very close to poodles. The one here presented must have belonged to a wealthy man, as the refined shearing of its fur suggests. The preceding two terracotta’s, the dogs are positioned on cushions laying on small altars, in a clear effort to emphasize the memorial value of the artwork. Although it is difficult to discard the hypothesis the present object could be a little posterior to Clodion’s works, who rejoiced of his fame among critics and collectors during the Nineteenth century, it is likely that the here examined terracotta could date to the last quarter of the XVIII century, and which would reflect the period’s increasing trend of interest and love for domestic animals.