Summer – Autumn 2011

Dogs do many things for us as they partner with us in our lives. They teach responsibility, provide companionship, and even become vital members of our families. We love our dogs for their personalities, as well as for their foibles.

Norman Rockwell’s dogs were not only part of his family’s life, they played an essential role in his illustrations from his earliest work and throughout his career. He often used the pets of neighbors and friends in his illustrations, and his own dogs sometimes made cameo appearances
in his art. The artist’s canine companion Pitter looks on in Juvenile Cowboy, a 196o advertisement for Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, but in 1956, he engaged an endearing but anonymous beagle for The Veterinarian, an illustration for The Upjohn Company. Now in the collection of Pfizer Inc, on loan to the Museum, the painting, in Rockwell’s words, portrays “a young, intelligent veterinarian perhaps looking down a very cute dog’s throat. The dog being held by its loving boy master.”