Dignity and Impudence

Edwin Landseer's Dignity and Impudence of 1839 pairs a bloodhound and a small terrier looking from a kennel opening — a comic juxtaposition of dignified gravity and impudent energy that became one of the most reproduced animal paintings in Victorian Britain. The work exemplifies Landseer's genius for projecting human emotional and social situations onto animals while maintaining careful observational accuracy. Dignity and Impudence was reproduced in engravings that hung in millions of Victorian homes, and the painting's popularity helped establish the anthropomorphized animal picture as a dominant genre of Victorian popular art.

Landseer's virtuoso technique renders the animals' textures with extraordinary precision — the bloodhound's wrinkled skin and the terrier's wiry coat are painted with almost illusionistic skill. The anthropomorphic characterization that made Landseer so popular is achieved through subtle attention to expression and posture.