Dogs: Norman Rockwell's Pets and Models

Norman Rockwell loved dogs, as pets and as subjects in his artwork.

Norman Rockwell was an American painter and illustrator. Many of his illustrations depicting real-life scenes appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post for almost 50 years. He would use his own dogs and neighbors' dogs as models - a photographer would capture the dog's pose for Rockwell to draw.

"Obtaining good photographs of animals for use in pictures is quite a test of your photography or, in my case, my photographer... The person taking the photographs must be extremely quick and ingenious because an animal may assume the pose you want for only a split second and you must be ready to snap the photograph at that unpredictable moment. I hold the animal where I hope he will assume the desired pose and my photographer focuses on him. Then I try to induce the model to take the desired pose. When he does I yell at the photographer to shoot. Sometimes the result is a blurred picture but other times I am lucky."

Rockwell's own dogs would accompany him to the studio and lay alongside him as he worked. On one occasion, he had to go to Europe and leave his collie Raleigh behind. The dog missed him so much - he lost a lot of weight, his health deteriorated and his whiskers turned white. The veterinarian surely thought he would die. When Rockwell returned, he hand-fed Raleigh every two hours. The dog put on weight and perked up but his whiskers remained white. Rockwell told Raleigh he would never leave him alone again if he would let his whiskers get back to their natural color. After a few weeks, his whiskers were dark again, and Rockwell never left him alone again.

Michelangelo's Pomeranian

It is said that the great Italian sculptor and painter Michelangelo (1475-1564) owned a Pomeranian, and the dog would sit on a satin pillow while he watched him paint the Sistine Chapel, one of the greatest artistic achievements in history.

Pablo Picasso and Lump the Dog

Pablo Picasso loved dogs, almost as much as women. He owned many breeds during his life, but Lump, a borrowed dachshund, was the only one he took in his arms.

Picasso and Lump

Lump, the German word for "rascal", was born in 1956 and belonged to Picasso's friend David Douglas Duncan, a photographer for Life magazine. In 1957, Duncan spent some time at Picasso's villa near Cannes in the South of France to photograph his life. Because Lump did not get along well with his other dog, an Afghan hound who would roll the dachshund around like a toy, Duncan decided to bring him with him.

Lump took an instant liking to Picasso. The artist and his partner (soon to be wife) Jacqueline were sitting at the table eating lunch when Lump first met him. The dog immediately went to Picasso, placed his front paws on him, jumped into his arms and gave him a kiss. That very day, Picasso did his first portrait of Lump on a dinner plate. He often included his dogs into his artwork, and Lump can be seen in several of his interpretations of Diego Velásquez's 1656 painting Las Meninas - replacing the big hound in the foreground.

Picasso and Lump quickly became best friends. According to Duncan, "This was a love affair. Picasso would take Lump in his arms. He would feed him from his hand. Hell, that little dog just took over. He ran the damn house." When it was time for Duncan to leave, Picasso wanted Lump to stay with him and Duncan agreed. In an interview on a visit to Paris, Duncan recalled "He [Lump] more or less said, 'Duncan, that's it, I'm staying here.' And he did, for the next six years."

Lump and Picasso's boxer Yan

Six years after leaving Lump with Picasso, Duncan visited the artist and learned that his dog was suffering from a spinal problem common to dachshunds. Lump was being treated by a veterinarian, but the doctor told Duncan he could not be cured. Duncan decided to take Lump to Stuttgart, Germany (where he had bought the dog) and found a veterinarian to care for him. One year later, Lump recovered and went home with Duncan. He lived many more years, but never accompanied his master again on his visits to Picasso's. Lump passed away on March 29, 1973 and Picasso passed away several days later on April 8.

When asked if Picasso neglected Lump (because of the spinal problem), Duncan replied "No, he'd have gotten sick anyway. Lump had an absolutely pampered life there. Picasso once said, 'Lump, he's not a dog, he's not a little man, he's somebody else.'"