the complexities of a white dog

thanks wikipaintings.org. (PD)

William Merritt Chase painted this oil "A Sketch of My Hound Kuttie" in 1885, but the issue of "how to paint a white (insert item here)" is one with which artists continually struggle.  Chase is one of the giants of American art: an Impressionist who never forgot his classical training, and a product of European schools who ended up establishing what would become Parsons The New School for Design.
Any artist, no matter how exalted, has to figure out how to make a white dog more than a white blob.  Here Merritt's brushed just enough blue, pink and buff into Kuttie's fur to show us where it ripples and cowlicks.  I find the tail particularly well done and pleasant to contemplate, but that may be because it reminds me so much of our own dog's tail.