Portrait of a Terrier, The Property of Owen Williams, ESQ., M.P. (Jocko with a Hedgehog)

This 1828 portrait of a terrier belonging to Owen Williams, M.P., exemplifies the commissioning of pet portraits that formed a significant part of Landseer’s practice. The Milwaukee Art Museum painting shows the terrier with a hedgehog, combining faithful portraiture of a specific animal with the narrative element of a natural encounter that enlivens the composition. Landseer's dog portraits occupied a central place in Victorian culture's sentimental engagement with the animal world. His ability to render the individual personality of specific dogs — their intelligence, loyalty, and emotional life — with the full resources of academic portraiture gave animal painting a dignity it had rarely previously possessed. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were among his most enthusiastic collectors of dog subjects, and royal favor transformed him from a fashionable painter into a cultural institution. His anthropomorphized animals — dogs that seemed to think, to grieve, to love — told Victorian audiences stories about the virtues they aspired to in a form they found entirely credible.

The terrier’s wiry coat is differentiated from the hedgehog’s spines through contrasting brushwork textures. Landseer’s rendering captures the terrier’s alert, predatory interest in its prickly companion with characteristic psychological insight.