an arctic dog

James Ward, 1769–1859, British, Arctic Dog, Facing Left, undated, Graphite on medium, smooth, cream, wove paper, mounted on, modertately thick, slightly textured, beige, laid paper, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection

One of the things I learned when I looked into the Royal Academician James Ward is that he's considered a largely neglected artist as far as art history is concerned.  I'm ready to back that up after several attempts to check links to this reference or that page only to find them 404'd out of what passes for memory these days.  Still, that doesn't change the fact that Ward was a powerful Romantic stylist with a great feel for the animals he portrayed.  While Romanticism with a capital R glorified the power of individual emotion and of nature, it also - in the best hands - knew how to find that in smaller subjects.  In this case, we have Ward taking a moment to rough out the intelligent, friendly face of an "Arctic dog," something - someone - new and different from the usual country hounds and horses.