the simple joy of being a pup

thanks wikiart.org (PD)

This fresh and immediate puppy study is from the hand of George Harvey (Scottish, 1806-1876).  Harvey was famed for his close observations of character and detail, as well as his feeling for nature in both large scope (landscape) and intimate scope (portraits of people and animals).  As he was painting during the years of the Romantic style, I'm not surprised by the freedom of his approach, but I do very much enjoy it.  The Romanticism of the United Kingdom did tend to be of a closer, more personal scale, a look at Nature as you yourself engaged with its small daily representatives - your children, your farm, your horse.  Here's a very readable essay about this art movement, which is one of my favorites, from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.