Thomas W. Laqueur

It is difficult to think of many other books that are at once so brilliant, so wonderfully entertaining, and so moving. I savoured every page and lingered over every illustration. It turns out that a dog’s eye view gives us unique access to some of the deepest longings, needs, and creative powers of our own species. The Dog’s Gaze is full of exuberant insights about our canine friends, about art, and about the human condition

In this beautiful book, Laqueur shows that dogs are everywhere in our lives and our art

The Dog’s Gaze: A Visual History is a treasure trove of fascinating material. There could be no more congenial and erudite guide than Professor Laqueur through centuries of artwork from ancient times to 20th-century America and beyond. Each dog portrait is both unique and emblematic: the dog as a companion of aristocrats, and of the common man; the dog at the periphery of human activity, and the dog as a measure of morality; the dog alone, in extremis, a mirror of human loneliness. We see in these richly varied depictions of our most faithful animal companion something of the evolution of our own humanity but most profoundly we see the dog as a creature of infinite beauty, irresistible to generations of artists.

A splendid blend of histories: natural, cultural, and artistic . . . [A] sprawling examination of dogs in the history of art, from Neolithic cave paintings to present-day photographs and paintings . . . In a book filled with image after image of dogs in all sorts of artistic contexts, Laqueur provides other meaningful interpretations of the dog as a religious symbol, an avatar of the good home, a hunting companion, a faithful friend—and, in one terrifying instance, as a hellhound chasing runaway enslaved people. Laqueur spins fine anecdotes, such as one concerning Pablo Picasso’s beloved dachshund, Lump, of whom the artist remarked, 'He’s not a dog, he’s not a little man, he’s somebody else;' and his text is full of smart aperçus, such as speculation on why dogs figure so often in stories and images about death, for 'who more than the dead need protection, attention, and guidance?' . . . A delight for dog-loving art connoisseurs, and vice versa.

A Visual History

Long before the phrase ‘man’s best friend’ became common parlance, dogs were already standing beside us in art as in life. In The Dog’s Gaze, the historian Thomas W. Laqueur invites us to explore why they feature more than any other animal in the ways in which we picture ourselves and our stories. 
 
Dogs have been ubiquitous in the worldmaking of visual artists as far back as the Palaeolithic age. Looking across the western tradition, from Giotto to Goya and Rubens to Rego, Laqueur shows what their presence – as hunting partners, beloved friends and even conduits to the afterlife – reveals about our own ways of seeing and how we want to be remembered. Far from being mere motifs, dogs are an integral and intentional element of the images in which they appear: they provide narrative coherence; they look out and bear witness, often on the artist’s behalf; they illuminate our understanding of morality and melancholy and some, like us, become celebrities. Indeed, as the author shows, dogs in art are our social doppelgängers, our companions in looking and being. 
 
Richly illustrated and lovingly written, The Dog’s Gaze is a unique visual history that examines the shared social history of our two species and offers fresh insights into the human condition through the eyes of our canine companions.

Thomas W. Laqueur

Praise for The Dog's Gaze

It is difficult to think of many other books that are at once so brilliant, so wonderfully entertaining, and so moving. I savoured every page and lingered over every illustration. It turns out that a dog’s eye view ...

In this beautiful book, Laqueur shows that dogs are everywhere in our lives and our art

The Dog’s Gaze: A Visual History is a treasure trove of fascinating material. There could be no more congenial and erudite guide than Professor Laqueur through centuries of artwork from ancient times to 20th ...

It is difficult to think of many other books that are at once so brilliant, so wonderfully entertaining, and so moving. I savoured every page and lingered over every illustration. It turns out that a dog’s eye view ...

In this beautiful book, Laqueur shows that dogs are everywhere in our lives and our art

The Dog’s Gaze: A Visual History is a treasure trove of fascinating material. There could be no more congenial and erudite guide than Professor Laqueur through centuries of artwork from ancient times to 20th ...

It is difficult to think of many other books that are at once so brilliant, so wonderfully entertaining, and so moving. I savoured every page and lingered over every illustration. It turns out that a dog’s eye view ...

In this beautiful book, Laqueur shows that dogs are everywhere in our lives and our art

The Dog’s Gaze: A Visual History is a treasure trove of fascinating material. There could be no more congenial and erudite guide than Professor Laqueur through centuries of artwork from ancient times to 20th ...

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