Portraits with Dogs

[Woman with Dog], circa 1910, v1990.61.20; Victorina Hayes collection, ARC.037; Brooklyn Historical Society.[Child with Dog], circa 1870, v1992.17.34; Secor, Flint and Cousins Families collection, ARC.192; Brooklyn Historical Society.[Man and Dog], circa 1975, v2008.013.40; Lucille Fornasieri-Gold photographs, 2008.013; Brooklyn Historical Society. 

Within the genre of portraiture there is a sub-genre of portraits of people posing with their dogs. The Brooklyn Historical Society happens to have an impressive body of images representing this specialty. I notice that small dogs seem especially popular in the early portraits from the late-1800s into the early-1900s, as illustrated by the woman in the image above, wearing a hat that is bigger than the dog beside her. Posing small, bewildered children with dogs is another popular pairing. Clearly, it has always been and will always be entertaining to photograph people and dogs that look alike.

On a side note, while portraits of people posing with cats seem to be rare, Brooklyn Historical Society also a strangely large collection of cat photographs...

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