French Bulldog"Bouboule"

Some time ago my attention was drawn to an art book about the painter Toulouse Lautrec and a painting titled “Bouboule, the bulldog of Madame Palmyre” (1897). Marvellously solemn, seated in an almost majestic attitude we see, clearly traced, a French Bulldog with its typical bat ears. Later I read that Madame Palmyre was the proprietor of a “special” restaurant in the lower reaches of Paris, of which today we only have clichéd reminders in “Mont Martre” and “Moulin Rouge”.
When I referred to another volume to find further information about the origins of the French Bulldog I was amazed to read that it is thought that this dog arose in the legendary Paris of the turn of the century. The same Madame Palmyre appears in the august list of members of the first club of French Bulldog owners. These members were by no means the rich and famous of the day, but butchers, coachmen, rag traders, café owners and barrow boys.
This discovery of the origins of the French Bulldog as the pet of the rag trade, market traders and butchers of Paris only gave the breed more appeal in my eyes, the fact that it had a meteoric rise from such humble beginnings to the most privileged classes.
Apart from the work of Lautrec I have been able to find few artistic representations of Frenchies that are worth the bother. This is due to the uniqueness of the breed as well as to the intentions and motivations of modern artist. Modern art seeks above all a solution to new aesthetic challenges, the creation of new styles and the rupture with the customs of representation of reality and thought, there is little room for a breed of dogs in the art studio. We also have to take into account that in our consumer society the most common use of the representation of dogs is for superficial and sentimental reproductions of the “Lassie” type aimed at a market somewhere between garden gnomes and ET. So it’s hardly a surprise that many painters have a developed a phobia about “dogs”.
I am no exception. However, the fact that I have had direct contact with bulldogs for many years, having lived the breed, it doesn’t seem so hard to me to have some pictorial access.
As to my own work, I can briefly point to some studies (ink drawings, charcoal sketches "Pascal"). Others have gone on to become more fully realised works, for example the three busts of sleeping Frenchies: 1983, and the “Clown Dog”. In six ink drawings I have caricatured the dogs. The idea that inspired me to this is relatively simple. Many lovers of the breed project human characteristics onto the dogs in their imagination, as I can perfectly well testify from personal experience.
The identification with an animal, be it more or less conscious, is the psychological hook of the caricature, the dog is drawn in reality as if it were a human portrait.