Dogs are silent muses in the world of art; their recorded influence dates back to Da Vinci, who often sketched them and is quoted as an early animal rights activist. Today dog paintings are being sold for tens of millions of dollars, such as Picasso’s Dog Portrait, which sold for $19.6 million in 2019.
The most expensive dog art piece is a balloon dog sculpture by Jeff Koons which sold for $52 million, also making it the most expensive piece of art by a living artist. Whether they were depicted in a cubist, abstract, or realist form, the artists of the Renaissance, Picasso, Magritte, and Warhol, often referred to their dogs for inspiration in art and in life. This sentiment was expressed by Alberto Gallardo Vazquez, a dog parent who painted a mural of his dog Cachito.
Murals are an art form that has been used for a variety of causes, namely beautifying a public or private space, to express protest and offer social or political commentary, or memorializing or recording a historical event. In Vazquez’s context, his mural was dedicated to Cachito. In the painting, the 5-year-old pup is depicted at the foot of a slightly open red door. The composition also features a white house and a garden.
What gives the mural extra character is Cachito’s routine of sitting outside next to it. He is often seen sitting on the street corner right beside the painting, watching passersby and seemingly exhibiting his parents’ work of art. Some say that there’s no way that he knows the painting is for him, but his evident pride and dedication to the mural say otherwise.
Image Credit: Alberto Gallardo Vazquez