Readers who’ve been following NPDD for even just a week will have noticed an emphasis on using artwork to accompany our posts. Why? In part, it’s because communication and education are cornerstones of NPDD’s commitment to celebrating purebred dogs, and art is a medium that can touch us in a way that words can’t. National Purebred Dog Day’s annual Fine Art/Poster competition is a culmination of the appreciation we have for dog artists. But there’s another reason we use artwork, particularly those from another time.

There is a lot to learn about purebred dogs and the time in which they lived by looking at paintings of them from the past. We can learn how society of the day viewed the role of dogs by observing the narrative in the picture. If there are people in the scene, where are they in relation to the dog? We can admire the way an artwork embodies a particular value system without admiring that value system by trying to see the painting from the point of view of the person who made it, and the people to whom it was directed. And finally, we learn about the dogs, themselves. Have they changed much from when the painting was done, and in what way? Were the heads better? The topline worse? Why were they groomed in that fashion? Some answers we won’t get, but some are self explanatory. Though the oil painting in this image has a stylized, distinctively art deco feel, Borzoi haven’t changed significantly since the piece was painted by Marguerite Kirmse in the 1930s.