Description
It 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 placard for The Dog painting in The Prado indicates the dog is in distress, quite literally, drowning.
The Dog is one of Goya’s Black Paintings, which he painted directly onto the walls of his house sometime between 1819 and 1823 when he was in his mid-70s, living alone and suffering from acute mental and physical distress. He did not intend the paintings for public exhibition, and they were not removed from the house until 50 years after Goya had left.
