Le Louvre et ses chiens

More than 250 works, famous and unknown, invite readers to discover the dogs of the Louvre’s collections. From the 3rd millennium BCE to the late 19th century, dogs accompany Diana and Aphrodite, kings and saints, hunters and shepherds, mythological and literary heroes. From the earliest greyhounds on the Susa vases to those of the Marly court, from tiny spaniels reflected in the crystal ball of Marguerite Gérard’s The Interesting Pupil or in The Wedding at Cana, to the pointer whose eye can be glimpsed in Largillière’s Family Portrait – sleeping, be-ribboned, threatening or bounding – dogs are everywhere across the museum’s departments. This book is a great chronological journey that leaves centre stage to the works themselves. Opened by a general text introducing the historical, iconographic and symbolic significance of dogs in art history, it also offers, through its eight indexes, an original reading grid that is both serious and playful.

Text in French.