Queen Victoria's Dog Dash

The dog name I chose to highlight this week is:

Dash

Queen Victoria was a dog lover and Dash was her prized Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. Dash was not one of the short-nosed varieties in vogue at the time.

The Queen's diary reveals that the same day in 1837 that she was crowned, she came home to give Dash a bath.

Queen Victoria's mother commissioned Edwin Landseer (1802-1873) to paint a portrait of Dash as a present for her seventeenth birthday.

Throughout her lifetime, Queen Victoria commissioned many dog portraits. Although artwork featuring dogs goes back centuries before her time, her influence significantly increased the popularity of dog art, especially portraits of pet dogs.

Prior to Queen Victoria’s time, dogs in paintings had primarily been represented in sporting scenes.

Picture Credit: Sir Edward Landseer (1802-1873), Queen Victoria's Dog, "Dash";