Cane Corso (c.1900)

The blood on this Italian mastiff’s nose suggests the alternative title ‘There’s Been a Killing.’ The eyes are fairly inscrutable. Are they full of menace and eyeing us as a possible next victim or are they a plea of innocence? The jury will remain forever out.

Chardingy was a celebrated Anglo-French animal portrait painter, born in London in 1842. A Benezit listed artist, he was the pupil of his father Pierre-Joseph Chardigny (1794-1866) and then of Thomas Couture (1815-1879) and first exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1868.