Sat for the Court

Pat McCarthy oil of a black and white spaniel on a stone ledge, ivory and gilt frame

Tallmadge Ave · Pat McCarthy

Sat for
the Court

The dogs that posed for Van Dyck, Goya and the Qing palace, painted again in Lancaster County on Florentine gold.

Eleven pieces, one of one ↓

On the cover: Spaniel on a Stone Ledge, Pat McCarthy — $595 Take it home

Pat McCarthy's dogs

Most of the dogs Pat painted this fall have sat for a court before.

A Cavalier, a Shih Tzu, a Corgi, a little white dog on a red cushion. Pat painted them in Lancaster County, most of them on old Florentine gilt plaques, and we brought them home in one stack. Laid out on the table they looked like a row of royal portraits. That turned out to be close to the truth: each of those breeds was painted for a king, a duchess or an empress long before anyone painted it for us.

Van Dyck painted the King's spaniels at Whitehall in 1635. Goya put a small white dog at the Duchess of Alba's feet in 1795. The Shih Tzu was bred inside the Qing palace. The Corgi lived at Windsor for seventy years. For most of history a dog got its portrait done because of who owned it.

Pat doesn't paint anyone's dog in particular. Nobody commissions her. The plaques supply the court. Florentine giltwood was made in Florence for the export trade, gesso then red bole then gold leaf, the same sequence the city used on its altarpieces. So the frame is real gilding, and the sitter is a dog nobody ordered.

Six of her paintings are here, with five other dog pieces from the shop that came out of the same history one way or another.

Sat for the CourtTallmadge Ave

1635 · Whitehall · The King's spaniel

Van Dyck's portrait of Charles I's three eldest children has two King Charles spaniels at the bottom of the canvas. Two hundred years later Queen Victoria's spaniel, Dash, sat for Landseer. The little spaniel never really left the room.

Pat McCarthy spaniel portrait, ivory and gilt frame1 Sat for: Van Dyck, 1635
A black-and-white spaniel on a stone ledge, oil on board, 16 by 13 inches. The ledge is an old portrait habit, the sitter posed behind a parapet. The frame is distressed ivory and gilt, scrolled and beaded, and far more formal than the dog.
Pat McCarthy Cavalier on Florentine board2 Sat for: Charles II's court painters
The Cavalier exists because of paintings. In 1926 an American, Roswell Eldridge, offered a prize at Crufts for spaniels "of the old type, as shown in pictures of Charles II of England's time." Breeders worked back toward the pictures. The Kennel Club recognised the result in 1944.
Pair of Staffordshire-style spaniel spill vases3 Sat for: Landseer, 1836
Landseer painted Victoria's Dash in 1836. Staffordshire spaniels surged in the 1840s on the strength of him and sat in pairs on mantels for the rest of her reign. These are Staffordshire-style spill vases, made to hold the tapers that lit the fire.

Whitehall · three pieces

  1. 1Spaniel on a Stone Ledge, Pat McCarthy. Oil on board, ivory and gilt frame. $595Take it homeFound a home
  2. 2Cavalier, Pat McCarthy. Oil on antique Florentine board, oval gilt frame. $295Take it homeFound a home
  3. 3Spaniel Spill Vases, Staffordshire-style, pair. $225Take it homeFound a home
Sat for the CourtWhitehall

1795 · Madrid · The duchess's dog

In Goya's portrait of the Duchess of Alba, a small white Bolognese stands at her feet with a red ribbon tied around one hind leg. The painting still hangs in the family's palace in Madrid.

Pat McCarthy white dog on a red cushion, Florentine board4 Sat for: Goya, 1795
Pat's white dog has the red too, a whole cushion of it, deep and a little loud. Oil on antique Florentine board, gilt frame. We don't know the breed and neither, we suspect, does the dog.
Vintage needlepoint dog pillow with green fringe5 Sat for: a needle and a long winter
Needlepoint, green fringe. A dog stitched onto the cushion instead of lying on it.

Madrid · two pieces

  1. 4White Dog on a Red Cushion, Pat McCarthy. Oil on antique Florentine board. $295Take it homeFound a home
  2. 5Needlepoint Dog Pillow, green fringe. $45Take it homeFound a home
Sat for the CourtMadrid
Pat McCarthy Shih Tzu on an ochre surface, gilt frame

No. 6 · The Qing court · The palace dog

Bred for
the Palace

Sat for: the Empress Dowager

The Empress Dowager Cixi kept a breeding program for Shih Tzus inside the Qing court, and the court eunuchs bred them to win favour with the emperor. The first two reached England in 1928, brought home by Lady Brownrigg. Pat's is six and a half by eight inches, oil on antique Florentine board, in a Greek-key gilt frame, settled on an ochre floor as though it had been given the room.

$295

Take it home
Sat for the CourtBeijing

1944 · Windsor · The Queen's dog

For her eighteenth birthday the King gave Princess Elizabeth a Pembroke Corgi puppy called Susan. Over her life she owned more than thirty of Susan's descendants.

Pat McCarthy corgi portrait in an ornate Florentine giltwood plaque7 Sat for: seventy years at Windsor
A corgi on a smoky blue-gray ground, 11 by 8 inches, set in a Florentine giltwood plaque with layers of ivory, gold and carved flowers. He looks pleased about it.

Windsor · one piece

  1. 7Corgi, Pat McCarthy. Oil on board, Florentine giltwood plaque. $285Take it homeFound a home
Sat for the CourtWindsor

The estate · The dogs that worked

Not every dog in a big house lived on a cushion. Setters were bred to find game birds and hold still on them, and they got painted too, usually with the bird.

Pat McCarthy setter with pheasant, gilt lace-border frame8 Sat for: the sporting painters
A liver-and-white setter with a pheasant, one wing still catching the light against a dark tree line. Signed P. McCarthy, lower right. Gilt lace-border frame.
Vintage Japanese spotted hunting dog figurine with game bird9 Sat for: an American shelf
The same picture in glazed ceramic, made in Japan for American dens. A spotted dog and his bird.

The estate · two pieces

  1. 8Setter with Pheasant, Pat McCarthy. Oil, gilt lace-border frame. $285Take it homeFound a home
  2. 9Hunting Dog with Game Bird, ceramic, Japan. $65Take it homeFound a home
Sat for the CourtThe Estate

1894–1940 · America gets a dog of its own

Then the portraits came down to everybody. America bred a dog of its own, a president made a breed famous, and the five-and-ten put both on a shelf.

Hubley cast iron Boston terrier doorstop bank10 Sat for: Lancaster, PA
The Boston terrier was one of the first breeds made in America; the AKC calls it the American Gentleman. Hubley, founded in Lancaster in 1894, cast this one in iron to hold a door open and take coins through his back. Pat paints in the same county.
Vintage black Scottish terrier figurine, made in Japan11 Sat for: the White House, 1940
Roosevelt got a Scottish terrier named Fala in 1940. Scotties were already on napkin rings, ashtrays and Christmas cards at the five-and-ten. Black ceramic with red detail, made in Japan.

America · two pieces

  1. 10Boston Terrier Doorstop Bank, Hubley, cast iron, black and tan. $150Take it homeFound a home
  2. 11Scottish Terrier, black ceramic with red detail, Japan. $25Take it homeFound a home
Sat for the CourtAmerica

Before you go

Eleven pieces. Six of them by Pat.

Everything here is in stock and one of one. Pat's paintings run from $285 to $595, and the rest from $25 to $225. Shipping is free on every U.S. order. The rest of her work, the rabbits and strawberries and a big beach scene, is on her own page.

Michele & Christine

All of Pat McCarthy's paintings →

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