The Dog in The Manger - Artistic Use

Artistic Use

Popular artistic allusions to the fable, or the idiom arising from it, were especially common during the 19th century. Where Lope de Vega had adapted the theme to a problem play in the 17th century, the French composer Albert Grisar used it as the basis for his one-act comic opera of 1855, Le chien du jardinier. It was also taken up in the USA by the successful writer of farces, Charles Hale Hoyt, in one of the last of his productions. A horse rather than the more common ox figures on the 1899 poster for this. The play was later to be made into a short comedy film in 1917 by the Selig Polyscope Company.

In England artistic preference was for the anecdotal and the sentimental during the 19th century, especially among genre artists, and they found the fable and its applications ideal for their purposes. Two of these set the example, later followed by Gustave Doré in France, of adapting the title to human examples of the behaviour indicated by the fable. In 1826, the print-maker, Thomas Lord Busby (active 1804–37), showed a dyspeptic man eyeing a huge dinner while hungry beggars and an importunate dog look on. Thomas Webster also exhibited a picture with the title "The Dog in the Manger" at the Society of British Artists in 1830. Of this a reviewer remarked that 'The strong sentiment of disgust and anger which is excited, while contemplating the selfishness of the spoiled and currish urchin in Mr Webster’s clever little work, is sufficient proof of his success' (London Literary Gazette, March 27, 1830, p. 211).

Naturally, the theme recommended itself to animal painters as well and we find it in the work of several regional artists. The most successful of these was Walter Hunt (1861–1941), whose "Dog in the Manger" was bought by the Chantrey Bequest in 1885 and is now in Tate Britain. Other treatments include ones by the Scottish artist Edwin Douglas (1848–1914) and by the Sussex painter Henry W.Bodle (1915). The latter shows two calves looking apprehensively at a puppy curled asleep in their hay basket. An outdoor scene of a dog and calves peering at each other by Claude Cardon (fl.1890–1915) has been alternatively titled "Curiosity" and "The Dog in the Manger".

Twentieth century American illustrations include a print by E. E. Cummings, now in the University of Texas collection (67.75.18). There is also a watercolour of the fable by Gerson Goldhaber that illustrates his wife Judith's Sonnets from Aesop.