Dog, 1914 (posthumous cast, 1965)

Gaudier’s marble Dog dates to mid-1914 and was one of his last works. Gaudier compresses the mass of the animal into two main areas of form, the head and the body, in a manner which relates closely to his other works. The carving relates to an early satirical drawing Woman and dog. It humorously undermines the odd appearance of the dog, thought to be a dachshund.

The original marble Dog was accidentally broken at Kettle’s Yard and in 1965 Jim Ede commissioned twelve bronze casts from the Fiorini & Carney Foundry in London. The original aluminium cast is now at the National Museum and Gallery of Wales, Cardiff and the others entered various collections around the world including The Tate Gallery, London.

“It might be thought simple to make a sculpture like ‘Dog’ by H. Gaudier-Brzeska, but so far as I know no one had done so in the whole world of sculpture, nor is it like any other sculptor’s work. It is essentially sculpture and at the same time is deeply realistic. I have known a child take it to bed instead of his ‘Teddy Bear’.” (Jim Ede, A Way of Life, 1984).