Landseer's dog paintings of the 1830's constitute one of the high points of his art and form a coherent group of work, by virtue of their subject matter and the narrative and the imaginative ideas that are common to them.(1)

King of the Castle relates thematically to A Jack in Office (1833, Victoria and Albert Museum, London), in which a terrier guards a meat barrow. In the present work the terrier seems to have stolen the meat from the pail in the background, rather than acting as a substitute for human authority. Nevertheless he is the only one of the five dogs in the picture to wear a collar, suggesting a difference of status. Landseer produced a small number of pictures of dogs in the years around 1830 which dramatise the conflict between `haves' and `have nots'. It is tempting to relate these paintings to contemporary debates within British society, in particular to the introduction of the first Reform Bill and early manifestations of concern about the social effects of the industrial revolution.

For comparison, this oil relates to Highland Music (exhibited 1830, Tate) and a sketch of young Brutus purchased from the artist's sale.


1. Richard Ormond, Sir Edwin Landseer, Thames and Hudson, London, 1981, page 94