Doubtful crumbs
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| Doubtful crumbs |
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| Edwin Landseer , 1858/59 |
| Oil on canvas |
| 62.2 x 74.6 cm |
| Wallace Collection , London |
Doubtful Crumbs ( German about doubtful crumbs ) is the title of a painting by Edwin Henry Landseer (1802-1873) in the years 1858/59. It belongs to the Wallace Collection in London and shows a large light and a small dark dog with a bone.
The work belongs to a series of animal representations , mainly those with dogs, in which the painter suggested an interpretation in terms of human sensitivities through the title of the picture. The painting became popular due to its reproduction as an engraving .
description
A well-groomed St. Bernard is slumbering in his doghouse, his head between his front paws, which he has loosely rested on a bone over the edge of the hut. The paws seem to be lying on it more randomly, but they hold the bone tight.
A small street dog sits at the side of the hut. He stares hungrily at the large bone that has not yet been completely gnawed off and at a fragment of bone that lies a little to the side and within reach in the foreground. The little dog's tongue hangs out of its mouth, it longs for the splinter and has already raised its right paw as if it were jumping.
The naturalistic painting style differentiates the two animals: the light fur of the large, slumbering dog shows a soft brushwork, the small, dark dog is painted in strong, restless strokes. The hut and the stone-tiled floor are precisely recorded academically , and the details - the chain on the hut wall, the dog collar, and the straw on the floor - are carefully observed. The colors vary in shades of green, brown and ocher with black, blue and white. Traces of red can be found in the little dog's tongue and bone.
Title and interpretation
The title Doubtful Crumbs - literally translated: "Doubtful crumbs " ( diminutive of crumb ) - initially characterizes the little dog's conflict: is at least the bone crumb accessible for me or not?
Until at least 1902 the painting in the Wallace collection had been listed under another title: Looking for the Crumbs that Fall from the Rich Man's Table . This title refers to the breadcrumbs , the narrower meaning of the word crumbs , and thus to a parable - motif in the New Testament : the crumbs that fall from the rich man's table: But it was a rich man who clothed himself with purple and delicious linen and lived gloriously and with joy every day. But it was a poor man named Lazarus , who lay in front of his door full of sores and longed to be satisfied with the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table […] .
A moral expression of the gestures of the big, full and the small, hungry dog seems doubtful. Rather, the focus is on the different social worlds of existence and perception and the associated human feelings. The Wallace Collection classifies Landseer's motif as a “humorous juxtaposition”.
classification
As early as the 1830s, Edwin Landseer not only depicted human and social circumstances in other dog paintings, but also repeatedly suggested their interpretation, particularly through the picture titles. For example, he illustrated the contrast between satiated and hungry dogs, as well as the big and the small dog, with titles pointing to the human.
Full and hungry
A picture of Landseer's dog with the title A Jack in Office from around 1833 shows a group of emaciated street dogs, which in an alley that leads to the entrance of a house, surround a wheelbarrow on which a well-groomed and too fat terrier dog is enthroned. Next to him on the cart you can see the copper utensils of his feeding. On the floor in a basket in which he was brought his lavish picnic from the house, there is a large pewter plate with some leftover food, which is greedily fixed by one of the street dogs in the foreground on the right. The dog is emaciated to the bone. Another, smaller dog on the left looks up at the tall animal, as do two other dogs in the dark room of the entrance alley behind the cart. The dogs in the foreground have their tails pinched, a sign of their fear of the dog on the wheelbarrow.
A jack in office is a street expression in English for the official in a subordinate position who considers himself extremely important. The stately gesture, according to one reviewer, prevents dogs from trying what he leaves.
Big and small
Landseer depicted the motif of the small and large dog in a painting in 1839, which he gave the meaningful title Dignity and Impudence (dignity and impudence). You can see two dogs in a dog house (not unlike the later hut of the sleepy St. Bernard). A Bloodhound holds its well-combed paws elegantly over the railing with its head held high and gazes pensively into the distance. Next to it, a small West Highland Terrier peeps from below from the corner of the hut, which can just about stretch its messy head over the step and stick its little pink tongue out of its mouth. The little cheeky does not follow the direction of the great worthy one, but looks curiously past the viewer one floor below. The big one doesn't care about the little one; rather, he seems to tolerate it with equanimity and to ignore it calmly.
The painting style corresponds to the expression of the two animals: The bloodhound's fur is layered with a soft brush, that of the little terrier gets its slightly prickly expression through the short, expressive lines.
reception
Edwin Henry Landseer's paintings were bought from him by private collectors and were therefore initially only accessible to the public at an exhibition or not at all. His fame as a painter was based on the financially profitable prints of his paintings. Printers included Landseer's brother Thomas , who made an engraving of Doubtful Crumbs in 1862 . Reviewers reacted consistently to the publication of the prints, such as the writer Charles Clarke, who published an enthusiastic article based on the printing of Doubtful Crumbs in 1869.
Landseer's paintings are now largely in public museums, as are the prints, which can still be found in private collections and occasionally on the art market to this day.
Provenance
The work was first shown in 1859 in an exhibition at the Royal Academy in London; Landseer had been a member of the Academy since 1831 . Elhanan Bicknell (1788–1861), a businessman and art patron, acquired the Doubtful Crumbs for his art collection. After Bicknells death the heirs gave the collection on April 25, 1863 in an auction at Christie's for sale; The Doubtful Crumbs were auctioned (as lot No. 105) for Richard Seymor-Conway, 4th Marquess of Hertford, and have since been in the family's palace at the time, Hertford House in London, in what is now the Wallace Collection .
literature
- Charles Clarke: Crumbs from a Sportsman's Table . Chapman & Hall, 1869; Pp. 336-338
- Littell's The Living Age . 74, Living Age Company Incorporated, Boston 1862; P. 417
Individual evidence
- ↑ In some information on the picture, the dog in the hut is also classified as a mastiff .
- ↑ A title in German does not exist in literature. Definition of crumb according to The Pocket Oxford Dictionary (1965): […] n. (Usu. In pl.) Small fragments of bread or of food & c. such as fall on or from the table, (sing.) soft inner part of loaves (crust & c.); small vouchsafing of comfort & c. [...]
- ↑ James Alexander Manson (1851-1921): Sir Edwin Landseer, RA London 1902; P. 199
- ↑ Poetic word for breadcrumbs
- ↑ Luke 16 : 19-21; so at least until 1912 in the translation of Luther in the German Bible version of the NT. From 1956 the passage reads (16, 21): and desired to be satisfied with what fell from the rich man's table . Correspondingly in the English King James Version : desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table ; on the other hand, the New International Version : longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table . The more recent versions are closer to the Greek text (16, 21): καὶ ἐπιθυμῶν χορτασθῆναι ἀπὸ τῶν πιπτόντων ἀπὸ τῆς τραπέζης τοῦ πλουστντντντο πλοαυσίου · νἀλλεἱ ἐροητν ὰύλλεἱ. The older version can still be found in 1959 in Büchmann p. 34 as a winged word . - See also Matthew 15: 26f .: He answered and said, It is not good that one should take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs. She said: Yes, sir; but the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table. (Translation Luther)
- ^ Littell's Living Age. Living Age Company Incorporated, Boston 1862; P. 417
- ^ Charles Clarke: Crumbs from a Sportsman's Table . Chapman & Hall, 1869; P. 336 f .
- ↑ humorous juxtaposition of two dogs : The Wallace Collection: Doubtful Crumbs
- ^ Littell's Living Age. Living Age Company Incorporated, Boston 1862; P. 417
- ↑ The Victoria & Albert Museum speaks of a Jack Russel Terrier in its description of the pictures .
- ^ Victoria & Albert Museum, London; cited in the description (summary) of the work .
- ^ Tate Gallery, London: Dignity and Impudence
- ^ The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: Printed by Thomas Landseers
- ^ Charles Clarke: Crumbs from a Sportsman's Table . Chapman & Hall, 1869; Pp. 336-338
- ↑ Other prints: Dignity and Impudence ( 1858 ) , A Jack in Office (1873)
- ↑ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography ( online )
- ^ University of Toronto Libraries: The 4th Marquess of Hertford
- ^ According to John Herbert Slater : Art Sales of the Year; Being a Record of the Prices Obtained at Auction for Pictures and Prints. 1902, p. 123 (snippet view) : sold at a price of; 2415; 1901/02 offered for ₤ 3138 (apparently not sold as the work remained in the Wallace Collection).
- ^ Wallace Collection: Doubtful Crumbs, Provenance
Web links
- The Wallace Collection , London: Doubtful Crumbs
- BBC : Your Paintings. Uncovering the nation's art collections: Doubtful Crumbs ' (archival version, accessed December 29, 2018)
- Victoria & Albert Museum , London: A Jack in Office
- Tate Gallery , London: Dignity and Impudence