Table d'Hote at a Dogs' Home

Before the 19th century cats and dogs had featured in paintings, but rarely as the main subjects. This painting is typical of those later works that deliberately tried to appeal to the public's emotional side. Painters like Landseer and Dollman succeeded in shifting the public's perception of animals from simply beasts to beings with thoughts and emotions. This humanizes the animals and sometimes, as in this case, gives them an almost comic quality, reinforced in the amusing title. Domestic animals like cats and dogs were particularly open to anthropomorphism by artists painting for the wealthier classes.