Royal Beloved Pets
Oil on Panel by Sir Edwin Landseer of “Dash”, Queen Victoria’s childhood spaniel companion.
The Royal Family is well known for their love of dogs maintaining a long tradition of keeping dogs for their companionship and unquestioning loyalty, setting a precedent for Britain to become a nation of animal lovers.
In the seventeenth century, Charles I made popular the King Charles spaniel, several of which feature in court portraits by Sir Anthony van Dyck.
It was Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, however, who first documented their large collection of domestic dogs, with Sir Edwin Landseer commissioned to paint their favorite pets including Dash, the spaniel who was Queen Victoria's childhood companion, and Eos, the greyhound who accompanied Prince Albert from Germany.
Dash was given to Victoria's mother in 1833, but by the end of April 1833, he had become Victoria's favorite companion. She described him in her diary as: ‘Dear little Dashy...quite my playfellow, for he is so fond of playing at ball and of barking and jumping’.
Young Queen Victoria and Dash by George Hayter
As a young teenager, the lonely Prince Albert fell in love with a six week old greyhound puppy named EOS for the Greek goddess of the Dawn. At the age of twenty-one, he left his German home to move to England so that he could marry his cousin Victoria, and Eos naturally moved with him.
So great was his affection for the dog that, the following year, the Queen commissioned a portrait of it from Sir Edwin Landseer, the unofficial court painter, as a surprise Christmas present for him. It was entitled Eos, A Favourite Greyhound, Property of HRH Prince Albert. Poised and sleek against a rich red backdrop, the greyhound stands expectantly among some of the Prince's personal effects - an opera hat, gloves and a cane.
Oil on Panel by Sir Edwin Landseer of “Eos”, Prince Albert’s beloved greyhound.
Queen Victoria and Albert continued to love and keep many other dogs and breeds as personal pets during the course of their life. The Royal family also became established breeders. The royal kennels were built in the early 1840’s in Windsor Home Park and at one time housed up to a hundred dogs! To this day, The Queen is one of the longest-established breeders of Pembroke corgis in the world.
Such was her commitment to animal welfare, that at a time when tail docking and ear cropping was common, Queen Victoria banned the practice in the royal kennels. Her patronage gave the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) the name it is known by today - a beautiful way to channel her legacy of her deep love for animals which followed her into her later years.
