i think the dog's wowed by the hairstyle

thanks wikimedia commons / rijkmuseum (PD)

Take a deep breath, because this is Alida Christina Provo Kluit-Assink.  (And her dog, since dogs have been visual shorthand for "fidelity" for centuries.)  This mannered, but luminous 1833 portrait by Jan Adam Kruseman shows us the wife of Amsterdam police official, mayor, and ultimately Parliament member Hendrik Provo Kluit.  As you would imagine, a man of such talent and drive has what it takes to get a lovely wife and provide for her well, although back then it was always probable she was the one with the family money backing her husband's rise.  In any case it won't do to be a person of substance without the portrait to prove it, so here's Alida in a lavish dress wearing a long gold chain, with her hair up in a painstaking arrangement.
I just realized her dog looks like he's "pointing" her hair.  Perhaps he thinks it's a quail or a pheasant or whatnot.