Head of a Hound

Dated 1674 and companion to the dead game at Dulwich, this concentrated study of a hound's head is among the most intimate of Boel's canvases — a single focused portrait of an individual working dog rather than an animal element within a larger composition. Hound portraits of this type had precedents in the Flemish tradition — aristocratic kennels maintained named dogs of distinguished lineage, and commissioning individual portraits was not unusual for prized animals. Dulwich's pairing of this work with the dead game canvas suggests they were conceived together: the dog's focused gaze reading against the inert abundance of its quarry in an implicit narrative pairing. Boel died in Paris in 1674, making these two Dulwich works final statements in his career.

A single head study at large scale allows Boel to demonstrate his full understanding of canine anatomy without the compositional management challenges of multi-figure works. The hound's soft ear leather, the translucent surface of the eye, the wet nose, and the varied length of facial fur each receive individualised treatment — this is portraiture as much as animal painting.