Year of the Dog East Meets West

A certain painter best known of his horses also created an album of dog portraits in a fusion style.
Yes I'm talking #Castiglione again ! The posture also works with the pattern of branches above and the white flowers in the foreground complement the dogs white chest patch. Ink is used to suggest shadow and form in a way compatible with Imperial Court Standards but also clearly showing Western influences.

More Year of the Dog art soon!

Castiglione NOT just Horses

I was pleasantly surprised to discover while searching for images for the upcoming Year of the Dog to discover #Castiglione the priest who became a Chinese Imperial Court Painter
didn't just do horses and dogs ...

Though I do strongly suspect as with other Ming and Qing paintings that possibly the bird subjects were in an aviary or jessed in a garden. Either that or the painter has deliberately combined thing he'd seen in the Imperial collections as the rocks look rather like the type used in the Chinese equivalent of "Dry" gardens or bonsai ???

Its a rather odd piece by both European and Chinese aesthetic standards but pleasing eccentric which was perhaps part of the appeal of his fusion style?