Custom dog portraits: 12 styles, and the photo that works best
Twelve dog portraits by Landseer, Stubbs, Gainsborough, Manet and Rosa Bonheur, each the masterwork behind a Fable portrait style, with the kind of photo that suits each one.
A good dog portrait is not a photo with a filter. It is a picture with a point of view: a setting, a light and a pose that say something about the dog. The painters who did it best were Edwin Landseer, George Stubbs, Thomas Gainsborough and Rosa Bonheur, and royal households paid them to paint their favourite dogs.
Each of the twelve paintings below is the masterwork behind one of Fable’s pet portrait styles. Under every picture you can order the original as a print, or send a photo of your own dog to that style and see a free preview first. For each one we also say which kind of photo suits it best, because a dog sitting in profile and a dog lying with its head on its paws need different pictures.
1. 'Lion', a Newfoundland Dog
Edwin Landseer, 'Lion', a Newfoundland Dog, 1824. Oil on canvas. Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Landseer was Queen Victoria’s favourite animal painter, and he loved Newfoundlands so much that the black and white ones are still called Landseers. Here Lion stands on a rock above a valley like the hero of his own landscape, one paw forward and his head turned to the wind.
Best photo: your dog standing, side on, photographed at their own eye level. Big, proud dogs suit it most, but a terrier looks wonderful posed like a lord on a mountain.
Create your portrait in this style
2. A Distinguished Member of the Humane Society
Edwin Landseer, A Distinguished Member of the Humane Society, 1831. Oil on canvas. Tate, London.
Landseer’s most famous dog portrait, and one of the best loved paintings in Tate. Newfoundlands were kept to pull people out of the water, so the title gives the dog honorary membership of the Royal Humane Society, which rewarded rescuers. He lies on a quay with his paws hanging over the edge, calm and ready.
Best photo: your dog lying down, front paws forward, looking out of the picture rather than at you.
Create your portrait in this style
3. Brown and White Norfolk or Water Spaniel
George Stubbs, Brown and White Norfolk or Water Spaniel, 1778. Oil on canvas. Yale Center for British Art.
Stubbs studied anatomy for years before he painted animals, and you can see it in every curl of this spaniel’s coat. The dog stands on a riverbank in an English summer, alert and ready to work, with willows and wildflowers around it. It is a portrait of a dog that is good at its job.
Best photo: standing on grass, side on, in soft daylight. Spaniels, setters and any dog with a feathered coat look superb in it.
Create your portrait in this style
4. Diane and Blonde, Hounds of Louis XIV
Alexandre-François Desportes, Diane and Blonde, Hounds of Louis XIV, 1702. Oil on canvas. Musée du Louvre, Paris.
Desportes was painter of the royal hunt to Louis XIV, and Diane and Blonde were two of the king’s own hounds. They crouch in the long grass as a pheasant breaks cover, every muscle ready. For a pair of dogs, this is the grandest way to be painted together.
Best photo: two dogs together, or one dog low to the ground and focused on something just out of frame.
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5. Dog of the Havana Breed
Jean-Jacques Bachelier, Dog of the Havana Breed, 1768. Oil on canvas. Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle.
A little Havana dog, clipped like a lion and wearing a pink bow, stands up on its hind legs in a room it has clearly just turned upside down. Bachelier painted it in 1768 with all the wit of the French court, and it is the portrait every small, spoiled and much loved dog deserves.
Best photo: a small dog full of character, sitting up or caught mid-mischief. Bichons, Havanese, Maltese and toy poodles are made for it.
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6. Fino and Tiny
George Stubbs, Fino and Tiny, 1791. Oil on canvas. Royal Collection.
Stubbs painted these two dogs for the Prince of Wales, later George IV, and the picture is still in the Royal Collection. A big fluffy dog stands still and grand while a small one bounds up to it: a portrait of a friendship as much as of two dogs.
Best photo: two dogs of different sizes, or one calm dog standing on open ground.
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7. Martin, a terrier
Rosa Bonheur, Martin, a terrier, 1879. Oil on canvas.
Rosa Bonheur was the most famous animal painter of the nineteenth century, a woman who studied animals in markets and abattoirs when that was unheard of. Her terrier Martin is painted close up, against a plain warm ground, so that everything is in his eyes and his wiry coat.
Best photo: a close-up of your dog’s face, looking straight at the camera. This style is the most forgiving of any background.
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8. Misse and Luttine
Jean-Baptiste Oudry, Misse and Luttine, 1729. Oil on canvas.
Oudry painted Louis XV’s favourite dogs again and again. Here a white greyhound and a black spaniel meet in a royal park beside a stone pedestal, and the contrast of the two coats makes the whole picture sing.
Best photo: two dogs with contrasting coats, standing or walking. Sighthounds look especially elegant in it.
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9. Pomeranian Bitch and Puppy
Thomas Gainsborough, Pomeranian Bitch and Puppy, 1777. Oil on canvas. Tate, London.
Gainsborough was the great portrait painter of Georgian England, and he painted dogs with the same tenderness as people. This Pomeranian and her puppy belonged to his friend, the composer Carl Friedrich Abel. The white coats glow against a dark bank and a dusk sky.
Best photo: a pale or white dog in soft light, or a mother and puppy together.
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10. Sultan and Rosette – the dogs of the Czartoryskis
Rosa Bonheur, Sultan and Rosette – the dogs of the Czartoryskis, 1852. Watercolour on paper.
A watercolour by Rosa Bonheur of two dogs of the Polish Czartoryski family: a large black and white dog lying on a terrace and a tiny fawn companion at his paws. It is lighter and airier than an oil, and the difference in size makes it charming.
Best photo: a big dog and a small one together, or one dog lying calmly on a terrace or a step.
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11. Tama, the Japanese Dog
Édouard Manet, Tama, the Japanese Dog, c. 1875. Oil on canvas. National Gallery of Art, Washington.
Manet painted Tama, a Japanese Chin brought back from Japan by the collector Henri Cernuschi, with a doll lying where it was dropped. The brushwork is quick and modern and the dog is all personality: an Impressionist portrait for a small dog with a big opinion.
Best photo: a small dog standing and looking up at you, ideally with a favourite toy nearby.
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12. The Artist's Dog Flèche
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, The Artist's Dog Flèche, c. 1881. Oil on wood. National Gallery of Art, Washington.
Toulouse-Lautrec painted his family’s dog Flèche when he was still a teenager, years before the cabarets of Montmartre. The hound sits in dappled sunlight by a tree, painted in loose, warm strokes. It is the most relaxed portrait here, for a dog who is happiest outside.
Best photo: your dog sitting outside in daylight, in a garden or under a tree.
Create your portrait in this style
Whichever painting speaks to you, there are two ways to bring it home. You can order the original masterwork as a print, prepared from its museum scan. Or you can open its style and send a photo of your own dog: you will see a free preview before you decide anything. A sharp photo in daylight, taken at your dog’s eye level, gives the best result in every style. For the history behind these pictures, read our guide to famous dog paintings.
Questions
What photo works best for a custom dog portrait?
A sharp photo in daylight, taken at your dog’s eye level, with the whole head in focus. Choose the pose to match the style: standing side on for Landseer or Stubbs, a close-up of the face for Rosa Bonheur, lying down for A Distinguished Member of the Humane Society.
Can I put two dogs in one portrait?
Yes. Styles painted after pairs, such as Diane and Blonde, Fino and Tiny, Misse and Luttine or Sultan and Rosette, are made for two dogs. Send a photo with both dogs in it.
Can I see the portrait before I buy?
Yes. Every style gives you a free preview of your own dog first. You only pay if you decide to order it.
Who painted the most famous dog portraits?
Sir Edwin Landseer is the best-known British dog painter, followed by George Stubbs and Thomas Gainsborough. In France, Desportes and Oudry painted the royal dogs, and in the nineteenth century Rosa Bonheur was the most famous animal painter in Europe.