Sigismond Bardac (1856 - 1919), Paris;
His estate sale, Paris, Georges Petit, 10-11 May 1920, lot 24, acquired by Guiraud;
Guiraud collection, Paris;
Mrs. Esmond, England;
Anonymous sale, William Doyle Galleries, 15 October 1986, lot 59.

Greenwich, Connecticut, Bruce Museum Best in show:  The dog in art from the Renaissance to Today, 13 May - 27 August 2006 (no number).

R. Rosenblum, "From the Royal Hunt to the taxidermist", in Best in show:  The dog in art from the Renaissance to Today, Edgar Peters Bowron ed., exhibition catalogue, New Haven and Houston 2006, p. 47, reproduced p. 49, fig. 36.

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting is in very good condition. The canvas has a good lining. The paint layer is cleaned, varnished and retouched. There seems to be little or no abrasion to the paint layer. The only retouches are in a few spots in the darker part of the background in the far left and a spot between the dog's front paws. The dog itself shows no restorations. The work should be hung in its current condition.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

The King Charles Spaniel was a favorite pet in European courts from at least the early 16^th century. The Venetian artist Titian was among the first painters to depict the breed: the red and white variety of the spaniel appears frequently in his works, including The Venus of Urbino of 1538, in which the small dog appears curled and asleep on his mistress’s bed. The first appearance of the breed in a painting of the English court is thought to be the 1558 portrait of Queen Mary I and King Philip by Hans Eworth, which depicts two impossibly small and alert red and white dogs seated at Queen Mary’s feet. As indicated by the breed’s name, these dogs were the particular favorites of King Charles II of England (1630 – 1685), and he is widely credited with increasing the popularity of the breed in the 17^th century. So favored were these dogs by the King that they even feature in contemporary accounts of life at Whitehall Palace. An entry dated 1 September 1666 in Samuel Pepys’s (1633 - 1703) celebrated diary describes a council meeting interrupted by the dogs: “All I observed there was the silliness of the King, playing with his dog all the while and not minding the business.”

Although originally bred as hunting dogs, the small size of the King Charles Spaniel made it more suited to the life of a lapdog, the adored accessory of royalty. Huet’s portrait of this particular dog captures the cloistered and pampered environment of many of these court dogs: the animal’s fur practically melts into the velour drapes and cushions that surround him, as he waits for his master or mistress to return.

Jean-Baptiste Huet was an esteemed engraver and animal painter of the late-18^th century. He began his artistic training with his father, Nicolas Huet, before being apprenticed to animal painter Charles Dagomer (1762/4 – before 1768) and later entering the studio of Jean-Baptiste Le Prince, where he developed his interest in engraving and etching. Huet was received into the Académie Royale in 1769 with Dog Attacking Geese (musée du Louvre, Paris) and showed in the Salon for the first time in that same year. In addition to his animal paintings, Huet created numerous genre scenes of the petite manière type. Of these, his Milkmaid (Musée Cognacq-Jay), shown at the 1769 Salon, clearly demonstrates the artist’s indebtedness to François Boucher. Although Huet attempted to gain recognition as a history painter, these compositions never won him the same critical or popular acclaim as his animal works.

The first recorded owner of this painting is Sigismond Bardac (1856 – 1919), a French banker whose wife, Emma, was mistress and muse to the renowned Impressionist composer Claude Debussy (1862 – 1918). Emma and Sigismond divorced in 1905, when Emma was already pregnant with Debussy’s daughter, Claude-Emma, to whom he dedicated his Children’s Corner Suite in 1909.