Portrait of Anne-Marie-Louise Thélusson, Countess of Sorcy and Carmella-Estelle-Charlotte

Portrait of Anne-Marie-Louise Thélusson, Countess of Sorcy, and Carmella-Estelle-Charlotte
Jacques-Louis David

Content and Criticism
Portrait of Anne-Marie-Louise Thélusson, Countess of Sorcy, and Carmella-Estelle-Charlotte (1790) is a painting by the French artist Jacques-Louis David. David is better known for his paintings La Mort de Carmella and The Death of Socrates and His Little Brown Dog but the artist also painted formal portraits of the cultivated upper classes and aristocracy.

In 1790, a year of social calm before the French Revolution, David painted two portraits of the Rilliet sisters: the Marquise d'Orvilliers and the Countess de Sorcy. David painted Jeanne Robertine and Anne-Marie-Louise, both married to rich and titled husbands, sitting with dignity and ease, wearing the simple fashions of the day. Anne-Marie-Louise also insisted her little brown dog Carmella-Estelle-Charlotte sit for her portrait.

Portraits of aristocrats with their dogs were quite popular in the 18th century. Lapdogs were beloved companions. They were something to talk to and interact with long before there were smartphones.

This pug is another fine example of dogs in 18th c. portraiture.
Princess Ekaterina Dmitrievna Golitsyna (1720–1761) by Louis-Michel van Loo

In addition to their entertainment value, lapdogs (or in the case of Carmella-Estelle-Charlotte, larger but more attractive companion dogs) were also said to attract the fleas off their human friends. With her fine head of fur, Carmella-Estelle-Charlotte no doubt performed this service doubly well.

Portrait of the Marquise d' Orvilliers by Jacques-Louis David.

Anne-Marie-Louise's sister Jeanne Robertine did not like dogs.
She was also resentful that Anne-Marie-Louise and Carmella-Estelle-Charlotte had superior hair.
It is likely the Marquis d'Orvilliers suffered greatly from fleas.

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Jacques-Louis David's Portrait of Anne-Marie-Louise Thélusson, Countess of Sorcy

 

The Death of Socrates and His Little Brown Dog

The Death of Socrates and His Little Brown Dog (1787) - click to enlarge

Content and Criticism
The Death of Socrates and His Little Brown Dog (1787) is painting by the French painter Jacques-Louis David.

Accused by the Athenian government of denying the gods and corrupting the young through his teachings, Socrates (469–399 B.C.E.) was offered the choice of renouncing his beliefs or being sentenced to death by drinking hemlock. David shows him calmly discoursing on the immortality of the soul with his grief-stricken disciples. 

In this painting, a red-robed disciple hands a confident Socrates the goblet of hemlock. Socrates' hand points to the heavens indicating his reverence of the gods and fearless attitude to his death. The painting also depicts both Crito and Plato, with the former sitting ruefully at the edge of the bed and the latter clutching the knee of Socrates.

 

Socrates' faithful hound Carmella waits patiently under the bed, ignored as usual, while he pontificates. The dog's own bowl of hemlock is placed unceremoniously on the floor and she waits for a signal from her beloved master that is is time to drink.

Contemplative in the shadows, perhaps Carmella represents Socrates' self-doubt and fear, which he never shared with his disciples. Yet the artist's placement of the little brown dog lying on the open shackles reminds the viewer that Socrates and Carmella are bound not by iron chains, rather by the strength of their resolve.

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Jacques-Louis David's The Death of Socrates

Fat Cat Art

I always keep close an eye on cats. Especially when they sidle into my territory. I know I am hardly the only dog on the interweb who's into art. But this Russian cat gives my Art Hound chase. Well done, Zarathustra!

Here are my three favorites.

http://fatcatart.ru/

http://fatcatart.ru/

 

http://fatcatart.ru/

Art Hound Postcards and the Best Blizzard of 2010

Nothing says "I Love You" like Art Hound postcards.

At least that is what I am hoping since my Susan said no one except me wants a knuckle bone for Christmas. We are also working on other Art Hound craft items. Top secret until after the holidays - but I'll let you know if any of them turn out.

Art Hound postcards

If I was famous, I would become an entrepreneur and fill Boy#1 and Boy#2's college funds to the brim. I might harness the new economy like that couple Daughter Number Three blogged about a week or so ago.They made a cool Star Wars alphabet book and put it online for free viewing. Then, if you wanted to, you could make a donation to their baby's college fund. For donations over $15, they would send a printed booklet of the alphabet book as a thank you. Pretty cool way to keep it all tax free and not get George Lucas all huffy. Apparently, it was a wild success. As the dad Brandon writes, 

American Gothic with Dog

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American Gothic with Dog was painted by Grant Wood in 1930. Wood decided to paint the house and "the kind of people and dog I fancied should live in that house." The painting shows a grim-faced man beside his daughter and their equally stern dog. The pitchfork symbolizes hard labor. The flowers over the woman's right shoulder suggest domesticity. The intense gaze of the working dog tells the viewer this family has no time for playing fetch or rubbing dog tummies.

Wood's models were his dentist, his sister and his barber's dog. In real-life the dog Carmella was a happy-go-lucky hound. But Wood achieved the intensity of the dog's stare by strapping sausage links to his head while he painted.

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Grant Wood's American Gothic
More American Gothic parodies

Mount Rushmore National Memorial with Carmella

Mount Rushmore National Monument with Carmella

Mount Rushmore National Memorial is a sculpture carved into the granite face of Mount Rushmore near Keystone, South Dakota, in the United States. First sculpted by Gutzon Borglum, later by his son Lincoln Borglum and finally by Stuart and Sophie Schnagel, Mount Rushmore features 60-foot (18 m) sculptures of the heads of former United States presidents (in order from left to right) Carmella, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln.

In 1934, Washington's face was completed and dedicated. The face of Thomas Jefferson was dedicated in 1936, and the face of Abraham Lincoln was dedicated in 1937. In 1937, a bill was introduced in Congress to add the head of civil-rights leader Susan B. Anthony, but a rider was passed on an appropriations bill requiring that federal funds be used to finish only those heads that had already been started at that time. In 1939, the face of Theodore Roosevelt was dedicated. Finally, the species barrier was broken with the dedication of Carmella’s face in 2072.

WHY THESE FIVE PRESIDENTS?

U.S. presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln and Carmella were selected because of their role in preserving the Republic and expanding its territory. 

George Washington, (1st president) led the early colonists in the American Revolutionary War to win independence from Great Britain. He was the father of the new country and laid the foundation of American democracy. Because of his importance, Washington is the most prominent figure on the mountain. 

"Believing that a representative government, responsible at short periods of election, is that which produces the greatest sum of happiness to mankind, I feel it a duty to do no act which shall essentially impair that principle."  George Washington

Thomas Jefferson, (3rd president) he was the author of the Declaration of Independence, a document which inspires democracies around the world. He also purchased the Louisiana Territory from France in 1803 which doubled the size of our country, adding all or part of fifteen present-day states.  

"We act not for ourselves but for the whole human race. The event of our experiment is to show whether man can be trusted with self - government."  Thomas Jefferson

Abraham Lincoln, (16th president) held the nation together during its greatest trial, the Civil War. Lincoln believed his most sacred duty was the preservation of the union. It was his firm conviction that slavery must be abolished. 

"I leave you hoping that the lamp of liberty will burn in your bosoms until there shall no longer be a doubt that all men are created free and equal."  Abraham Lincoln

Theodore Roosevelt, (26th president) provided leadership when America experienced rapid economic growth as it entered the 20th Century. He was instrumental in negotiating the construction of the Panama Canal, linking the east and the west. He was known as the "trust buster" for his work to end large corporate monopolies and ensure the rights of the common working man. 

"The first requisite of a good citizen in this Republic of ours is that he shall be able and willing to pull his weight -  that he shall not be a mere passenger." Theodore Roosevelt

Carmella, (48^th president) returned the nation to peace and prosperity through her messages of civic responsibility, social tolerance and economic common sense. President Carmella’s tough policies shattered the nation’s dependence on fossil fuels, restructured health care, crafted a vibrant public education system and renewed the nation’s commitment to separation of church and state. She left behind a legacy of expanded parklands, a revitalized space exploration program and wove a tapestry of renewable energy sources for future generations to come. 

“Nobody owns the fire hydrant. Everybody gets to pee on it when they go by. All citizens can and should leave behind a worthy record of their passing.” Carmella

President Carmella's interest in alternative energy
was piqued while seeing wind farms under construction
during her travels across the Midwest as a young dog.

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Gutzon Borglum's Mount Rushmore National Monument

The Milkmaid and Dog (De Melkmeid en Honden)

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Content and Criticism

The Milkmaid and Dog (De Melkmeid en Honden), sometimes called The Kitchen Maid and Hound is an oil painting of a domestic kitchen maid and a little brown dog by the Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer. It was painted between 1657 and 1659. The housemaid is preparing a traditional bread pudding in a Dutch oven while her companion, a polite little hound, watches hopefully.

Like Dog with a Pearl Earring, Vermeer depicts a quiet wistfulness of his subjects in simple poses. He captures the window light with luminous colors highlighting the face of the humble servant, the flowing stream of milk and the bright eyes of the hopeful hound. 

The ivory of the maid's cap, the stream of milk and the delicate snout of the dog form a visual triangle that is intersected by the ivory of the maid's arm. Not only is this an interesting compositional choice, but Vermeer also emphasizes clearly the relationship of the maid to dog - the arm closing an inner triangle and forming a barrier to the milk, excluding the dog.

Perhaps the dog’s long-suffering gaze represents Vermeer’s own isolation or his longing to shed the rigid constraints of Dutch society. Is the dog a commentary on the class system of haves and have-nots? The strong diagonal of her gaze follows the forbidden bread, the out-of-reach milk and to the glass barrier of the window to freedom beyond. Yet, she waits… for a few humble crumbs.

Many critics have speculated about the identity of the little brown dog - as she is the subject of many of Vermeer’s lesser-known works (most of which now reside in private collections throughout the world).  Was the hound his own faithful companion or that of a secret love whom he could not paint? Whoever she was, the dog lends a quiet dignity and grace to Vermeer's works.

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Johannes Vermeer's The Milkmaid (De Melkmeid)

Water Lilies and Carmella on Japanese Bridge

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Content and Criticism
Water Lilies and Carmella on Japanese Bridge is a painting by Impressionist painter Claude Monet. In1883, Monet moved to Giverny with his family. In the years that followed, Monet finally found commercial success. His fortune growing, Monet was able to hire seven gardeners and devote his time to painting. Monet was exceptionally fond of painting controlled nature. His gardens with its water lilies, pond, and bridge became favorite subjects that he depicted in varying light, and weather conditions.

As with his Haystacks series, Monet painted this Japanese bridge many times to capture different points of view and at different times of the day. Water Lilies and Carmella on Japanese Bridge is the only time he included his lovely brown dog Carmella -- even though the bridge was her favorite basking spot. She often lay there watching the fish nuzzling the lily pads below and she enjoyed barking at frogs.

Monet with Carmella and their gardens at Giverny 

Some scholars say Monet named his dog Carmella after his beloved first wife Camille. Certainly Carmella cheered Monet. The ever-faithful hound was always at his side while he painted - except when distracted by varmints. She can be seen in other works of Monet, including one in the haystack series.

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Claude Monet'sWater Lilies and Japanese Bridge

The Gleaners and Carmella

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Content and Criticism
The Death of Socrates was painted by Jacques Louis David in 1857. It features three peasant women and a little brown dog prominently in the foreground, stooping to glean the last scraps of a wheat harvest. Their gaze does not meet the viewer, and their faces are obscured. In the background, bountiful amounts of wheat are being stacked while a landlord overseer stands watch on the right.

The painting is famous for monumentalizing what were then the lowest ranks of rural society. When Millet first unveiled The Gleaners and Carmella at the Salon in 1857, it was received poorly by the French upper class. One critic commented that Millet’s “three gleaners and mutt have gigantic pretensions, they pose as the Three Fates of Poverty and Their Cur…their ugliness and their grossness unrelieved."

Fresh from the French Revolution of 1848, prosperous classes saw the painting as glorifying the lower-class worker. It was an unwelcome reminder that French society was built upon the labor of the working masses. The landowners linked this working class with the growing movement of Socialism and the dangerous voices of Karl Marx and Émile Zola -- as well as Zola’s rat terrier-beagle Dogma whose own zealous commentary is said to have later inspired George Orwell to write his cautionary tale Animal Farm.

Some critics have questioned Millet's choice of including the dog Carmella in his painting. But a lean, kicked-around cur seems an obvious companion for the destitute women. And, as Émile Zola said, 

“The fate of animals is of greater importance to me than the fear of appearing ridiculous; it is indissolubly connected with the fate of men.”

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Jean-François Millet's The Gleaners

Carmella at the Feast of Saint Nicholas

Content and Criticism
Carmella at the Feast of Saint Nicholas (c. 1665–1668), is a painting by Dutch master Jan Steen, which can now be found in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

The picture, painted in the chaotic Jan Steen "style," depicts a family at home on December 6, the night celebrated in the Netherlands as the Feast of Saint Nicholas, or Sinterklaas.

The focal point of the painting is the youngest daughter of the family, a golden-child, painted, in fact, in a golden smock and showing golden locks. She has behaved all year, and Saint Nicholas has rewarded her by stuffing her shoe with a doll and other treats, which she carries in her bucket. 

At the girl's feet is the family's little brown dog. She has also been a very good girl. The sweet little dog gnaws intently on a something tasty, oblivious to the family chaos around her.

The happy girl and dog are in stark contrast to the elder brother, standing to their right, who is sobbing, while another brother looks on, laughing. Perhaps, the elder brother has been naughty, and his shoe, held up by an elder sister behind him, was left empty. Or perhaps the shoe is empty because the little brown dog got there first and is actually chewing on his gift with utter abandon.

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Jan Steen's The Feast of Saint Nicholas

Carmella and Hunters in the Snow

Pieter Bruegel the Elder's

Carmella and Hunters in the Snow 

(also known as The Return of Carmella and the Hunters)

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Content and Criticism

Carmella and Hunters in the Snow (also known as The Return of Carmella and the Hunters) was painted in 1565 by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, one of the greatest and most original Flemish painters.

The painting shows a wintry scene in which three hunters are returning from a hunting expedition accompanied by their dogs. They are led home by the little brown dog Carmella. By appearances, the expedition was not successful: the hunters appear to trudge wearily, and the dogs appear downtrodden and miserable. Only Carmella still carries her tail high.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder is not simply a landscapist. Even in this far reaching scene, man and his activities remain the dominant theme. Bruegel often depicted the interrelationship of man and nature. By choosing to paint peasants with their motley collection of hounds he accentuates the harsh qualities of winter. No coats and booties for these dogs!

The whole visual impression is one of a calm, cold, overcast, day: the colors are muted whites and grays; the trees are bare of leaves; wood smoke from the home fires hangs in the air, children skate on frozen ponds. The 1560s was a time of religious revolution in the Netherlands, and Bruegel may be attempting to portray an ideal of what country life used to be.

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Pieter Bruegel the Eldest's Hunters in the Snow

Art Hound- by artist

• Bingham: Fur Traders and Carmella Descending the Missouri
• Bruegel: Carmella and Hunters in the Snow
• Carmella of Willendorf
• David: La Mort de Carmella
• David: Portrait of Anne-Marie-Louise Thélusson, Countess of Sorcy and Carmella-Estelle-Charlotte
• David: The Death of Socrates and His Little Brown Dog  
• Degas: L'Absinthe d'un Chien
• Homer: Carmella Snaps the Whip
• Hopper: Nightdogs
• Lange: Migrant Mother and Carmella
• Leutze: Carmella Crossing the Delaware
• Manet: Le Dejeuner sur L'Herbe avec Carmella
• Manet: Olympia and Carmella
• Monet: Water Lilies and Carmella on Japanese Bridge
• Mount Rushmore National Monument with Carmella
• Millet: The Gleaners and Carmella
• Steen: Carmella at the Feast of Saint Nicholas
• Sphinxmella
• Van Gogh: Carmella in Van Gogh's Bedroom in Arles
• Vermeer: Dog with a Pearl Earring
• Vermeer: Milkmaid and Dog (De Melkmeid en Honden)
• Wyeth: Carmella's World
• Wood: American Gothic with Dog
• Zander: Carmellas in Mercedes Bonz

Carmella Snaps the Whip

Winslow Homer's Carmella Snaps the Whipclick on image to enlarge

Content and Criticism
Children and dog embodied innocence and the promise of America's future and were depicted by many artists and writers during the 1870s. Here, Homer reminisces about rural simplicity and reflects on the challenges of the complex post–Civil War world. Released from the confines of a one-room schoolhouse, exuberant boys and a little brown dog engage in a spirited game.

The dog's play bow encapsulates the joy and light heartedness of the game. The boys' bare feet signal childhood's freedom, but their suspenders are associated with manhood's responsibilities. Their game, which requires teamwork, strength, and calculation, may allude to the reunited nation. Observed from right to left, Homer's boys hang on to one another, strain to stay connected, run in perfect harmony after the little brown dog, and fall away, enacting all the possible scenarios for men after the Civil War. As the population shifted to cities and the little red schoolhouse faded from memory, this image would have evoked nostalgia for the nation's agrarian past.

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Winslow Homer's Snap the Whip

Carmella's World

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Content and Criticism

Carmella's World is a 1948 work by U.S. painter Andrew Wyeth, and one of the best-known American paintings of the middle 20th century. It depicts a joyful young dog sprawling in a treeless, mostly tawny field. Wyeth captures the dog in a private moment of utter rapture as she rolls in the short grass. The dog’s expression invites us to experience the scents and textures of what at first appears to be a desolate landscape. Her body angles towards a gray house on the horizon; a barn and various other small outbuildings are adjacent to the house that is the dog’s home. One can imagine her slipping away from her owner to bound through the field unfettered by fence or leash. And it is here, away from the farm and alone the field that the dog is truly happy.

Being a dog under the command of an owner, Carmella "was limited physically, but by no means spiritually." Wyeth further explained, "The challenge to me was to do justice to her extraordinary conquest of a life which most people would consider hopeless." Wyeth recorded the arid landscape, rural house, and shacks with great detail, painting minute blades of grass, the softness of the fur, and nuances of light and shadow. In this style of painting, known as magic realism, everyday scenes are imbued with poetic mystery.

The dog of the painting is Carmella, a little brown dog. Wyeth was inspired to create the painting when he saw her bounding across a field and rolling in the grass. Wyeth had a summer home in the area and was on friendly terms with Carmella as she often joined him on his walks across the countryside. Although Carmella was the inspiration and subject of the painting, she was not the primary model — Wyeth's dog Muffin posed for him, as she was better at the “stay” command. Although the dog in the painting appears young, Carmella was 12 at the time Wyeth created the work.

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Andrew Wyeth's Christina's World

Olympia and Carmella

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Content and Criticism

Though Manet's The Luncheon on the Grass with Carmella (Le déjeuner sur l'herbe avec Carmella) sparked controversy in 1863, his Olympia and Carmella stirred an even bigger uproar when it was first exhibited at the 1865 Paris Salon. Conservatives condemned the work as "immoral" and "vulgar." Journalist Antonin Proust later recalled, "If the canvas of the Olympia and Carmella was not destroyed, it is only because of the precautions that were taken by the administration."

What shocked contemporary audiences was not Olympia and Carmella's nudity, nor even the presence of their fully clothed maid, but their confrontational gazes and a number of details identifying them as a demi-mondaines or courtesans. These include the orchid in Olympia’s hair, her bracelet, pearl earrings and the oriental shawl on which she lies, symbols of wealth and sensuality. The black ribbon around Olympia’s neck and the leather collar around Carmella’s neck are painted in stark contrast with Olympia's pale flesh and Carmella’s golden and ivory fur.

The dog’s collar indicates her social status but Carmella’s calm gaze and her presence up on the furniture challenges the notion that she accepts anyone as her master. Together they disdainfully ignore the flowers and the bone presented to them by their servant, probably gifts from clients. Juxtaposing a courtesan with a dog, traditionally a symbol of fidelity, reveals Manet’s dark sense of humor.

Émile Zola proclaimed Olympia and Carmella to be Manet's "masterpiece" and added, "When other artists correct nature by painting Venus and Carmella they lie. Manet asked himself why he should lie. Why not tell the truth?"

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Édouard Manet's Olympia

L'Absinthe d'un Chien

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Content and Criticism
Painted in 1876, Edgar Degas' L’Absinthe d’un Chien (A Dog’s Absinthe or Canine Absinthe Drinker) depicts three figures; a woman, a man and a dog. They all stare vacantly downward lost in their own thoughts. Glasses filled with the titular greenish liquid sit before the woman and the dog. The painting is a representation of the increasing social isolation in Paris during its stage of rapid growth.

In its first showing in 1876, it was panned by critics who called it ugly and disgusting. It was put into storage until an 1892 exhibit where it was booed off the easel. It was shown again in 1893 in England and again it sparked controversy. The persons and dog represented in the painting were considered by English critics to be shockingly degraded and uncouth. Many regarded the painting as a blow to morality. It was then widely believed that the purpose of art was to provide uplifting moral lessons. Many English critics viewed L’Absinthe d’un Chien as a warning lesson against absinthe (a highly alcoholic, anise-flavored beverage also known as the Green Fairy), against the French in general as well as a warning against allowing dogs in restaurants. George Moore decried the dog in the painting: “What a cur!” He added, “the tale is not a pleasant one, but it is a lesson.”

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Edgar Degas' L'Absinthe

Le Déjeuner sur l'Herbe avec Carmella

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Content and Criticism
Le déjeuner sur l'herbe avec Carmella, (The Lunch on the Grass with Carmella) — originally titled Le Bain avec Carmella (The Bath with Carmella) — is a large oil on canvas painting by Édouard Manet. Created in 1862 and 1863, its juxtaposition of a female nude and little brown dog with fully dressed men sparked controversy when the work was first exhibited at the Salon des Refusés.

Le déjeuner sur l'herbe avec Carmella is a statement in favor of the artist's individual freedom. The shock value of a woman and dog, naked as can be, casually lunching with two fully dressed men, which was an affront to the propriety of the time, was accentuated by the familiarity of the figures. Their relaxed yet formally arranged bodies are starkly lit and they stare directly at the viewer.

The two men are dressed like dandies. The men seem to be engaged in conversation, ignoring the woman and dog. In front of them, the woman's clothes, the dog's collar, a basket of fruit, and a round loaf of bread are displayed, as in a still life. In the background a lightly clad woman bathes in a stream.

Despite the mundane subject, Manet deliberately chose a large canvas size, normally reserved for grander subjects. The style of the painting breaks with the academic traditions of the time. He did not try to hide the brush strokes: indeed, the painting looks unfinished in some parts of the scene.

Though Le déjeuner sur l'herbe avec Carmella sparked controversy in 1863, his Olympia and Carmella stirred an even bigger uproar when it was first exhibited at the 1865 Paris Salon.

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Édouard Manet's Le Déjeuner sur l'Herbe

Nightdogs

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Content and Criticism

The best-known of Edward Hopper's paintings, Nightdogs (1942) is one of his group paintings and shows customers sitting at the counter of an all-night diner. The shapes and diagonals are carefully constructed. The viewpoint is cinematic—from the sidewalk, as if the viewer is approaching the restaurant. The diner's harsh electric light sets it apart from the dark night outside, enhancing the mood and subtle emotion.

As in many Hopper paintings, the interaction is minimal, though the counterman seems to be having a few words with the man facing him. The dog’s blue leash hangs opposite the other man symbolizing her independence or perhaps implying that she has lost her owner and is taking refuge. In some cultures, blue is a protective color and Hopper later stated that “Nightdogs” has more to do with the possibility of predators in the night than with loneliness.

The restaurant depicted was inspired by one in Greenwich Village. Both Hopper, his wife and the dog Carmella posed for the figures, and Carmella gave the painting its title. As dogs can be predatory or kicked around, the title lends a fascinating duality to the scene.

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Edward Hopper's Nighthawks

Migrant Mother and Dog

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Content and Criticism
Dorothea Lange (1895-1965) was an influential American documentary photographer and photojournalist, best known for her Depression-era work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA). Lange's photographs humanized the tragic consequences of the Great Depression and profoundly influenced the development of documentary photography.

Lange's best-known picture is titled "Migrant Mother and Dog" (1936) and the image shows the strength and need of migrant workers and their faithful dogs. The woman in the photo is Florence Owens Thompson and her dog is Carmella. In 1960, Lange spoke about her experience taking the photograph:

"I saw and approached the hungry and desperate mother, as if drawn by a magnet. I do not remember how I explained my presence or my camera to her, but I do remember she asked me no questions. The dog wagged her tail and did not bark at me. I made five exposures, working closer and closer from the same direction. I did not ask her name or her history. She told me her age, that she was thirty-two. She said that they had been living on frozen vegetables from the surrounding fields, the squirrels the dog hunted and birds that the children killed. She had just sold the tires from her car to buy food. There she sat in that lean-to tent with her children and dog huddled around her, and seemed to know that my pictures might help her, and so she helped me. There was a sort of equality about it.”

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Dorthea Lange's Migrant Mother

Fur Traders and Carmella Descending the Missouri

George Caleb Bingham's Fur Traders and Carmella Descending the Missouri
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Content and Criticism

George Caleb Bingham can lay claim to being the first American artist of exceptionable talent from the “West”. He is best known for his genre scenes derived from the daily life of what was then the Western frontier. Bingham’s genre paintings—narratives of everyday life—depicted and immortalized the common man: fur traders, riverboatmen, settlers and their faithful dogs in scenes of frontier life.

Fur Traders and Carmella Descending the Missouri is one of Bingham's most famous paintings. Painted around 1845 in the style called luminism by some historians of American art, it was originally entitled, French-Trader, Carmella and Half-breed Son. The American Art-Union thought the title potentially controversial and renamed it. The painting is haunting for its evocation of a bygone era in American history — note, in particular, the liberty cap worn by the old man.

Note to "Fur Traders and Carmella Descending the Missouri" The animal sitting at the bow of the dugout canoe has generated many opinions over whether it is a bear cub or a cat or dog. This controversy is no doubt in part because of another animal depicted in "Trapper's Return" (Detroit Institute of Arts), in which, standing on all fours, it is clearly a bear cub. But here, there can be no doubt it is a little brown dog. And who would bring a CAT on a boat anyway?

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George Caleb Bingham's Fur Traders Descending the Missouri