Description
The Dog by Francisco de Goya shows the head of a dog gazing upwards. The dog itself is almost lost in the vastness of the rest of the image, which is empty except for a dark sloping area near the bottom of the picture: an unidentifiable mass which conceals the animal’s body. The Prado titles the work The Drowning Dog, while the sparse setting leaves the animal’s precise situation open to interpretation.
The Dog is one of Goya’s Black Paintings, which he painted directly onto the walls of his house between 1820 and 1823. He did not intend the paintings for public exhibition, and they were not removed from the house until 50 years after Goya had left.
Read our guide to giclée prints or browse the Goya collection.




