A Favorite Hound held by a Chain

The Flemish painter Anthony van Dyck produced a memorable series of dogs in his portraits, elevating the status of the animals to a prominence often equal to that of their owners. The present dog is similar in style to those depicted in Van Dyck's Duke Wolfgang Wilhelm of Pfalz-Neuburg and Jülich-Berg (1578-1653), (Kunsthalle, Bremen) and his portrait of James Stuart, 4th Duke of Lennox and 1st Duke of Richmond, 1633 (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), the latter which became his most memorable depiction of a dog.