Study of 17 dogs

Dated 1671 and held in the Louvre's Department of Prints and Drawings rather than the painting galleries, this study of seventeen dogs is one of the largest and most systematic of Boel's animal studies — a near-exhaustive survey of dog types available in the Flemish and French aristocratic world in which he moved. The year 1671 places this firmly within Boel's Paris period when he was working for the Gobelins tapestry workshops under Le Brun's direction; such comprehensive multi-animal studies were exactly the kind of preparatory material the workshops required for tapestries featuring hunting scenes and animal allegories. The Louvre's conservation of this in the drawings department rather than paintings reflects its working-document status — this was practical reference material, not an autonomous picture for display.

Seventeen dogs on a single canvas requires a systematic compositional strategy: Boel distributes the animals across the picture surface in overlapping groups, each individual differentiated by breed type, pose, and facing direction. Paint application is looser than in his finished works — this is working reference material and the speed of execution shows in more gestural handling of backgrounds.