As any sausage dog lover will know, these personality-driven doggies are fully worthy of muse status. Maybe that’s why so many artists have either had dachshunds as pets, or featured them in their work. If you’re not an art-lover, you may have never noticed them, but, once you take a look at these famous dachshunds throughout art history, you’ll never be able to look at art the same way again. Here are some of our favorite dachshunds throughout art history (and we’d be lying if we said we didn’t want to buy prints of each and everyone one of them!).
Andy Warhol had a lot of affinity for sausage dogs and had two of his own, Amos and Archie. His friends knew the two pups well and frequently saw the artist and the dogs out together. Eventually, Andy Warhol produced a portrait of a separate sausage dog (not one of his own, unfortunately), but instead, a sausage dog named Maurice.
2. David Hockney
Hockney isn’t quite as popular as Andy Warhol, but the artist also featured his favorite sausage dogs, named Stanley and Boodgie. There’s an entire book of illustrations and photos of sausage dogs that you can purchase by Hockney, called David Hockney’s Dog Days (and it’s a smart purchase indeed).
3. Pierre Bonnard
A little blast from the past, Pierre Bonnard was a French painter around the turn of the century. Bonnard often features a lovely little brown Dachshund in his paintings. The doxies are often seen in intimate scenes such as bathrooms, dressing rooms and more.
4. Giacomo Balla
Balla’s Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash is an in-motion painting that was one of the first of its kind because of this painting style. The dog has a ton of tails and legs and leads, representing a flurry of motion (and you likely are familiar with this little flurry of activity with your own adorable doxie!).
Waldi the dachshund was the mascot for the Olympic games when they were held in Munich in 1972. The lovely little guy was featured in various prints and graphic work leading up to the games and wouldn’t you just want a print of this little guy sitting in your living room?
6. Picasso
Did you know that Picasso had a muse that was not, in fact, a woman, but rather a dachshund named (very cutely) Lump? Picasso represented Lump in his own way and artwork and while the dog doesn’t look quite like a dog at all in paintings (rather more like a mouse or rat), it’s still a great story in its own right, how the two came together. Lump originally belonged to one of Picasso’s colleagues and then Lump just decided he’d stay at Picasso’s house…forever. And the two became fast friends.
7. Franz Marc
Do you believe that this painting is of a dachshund? While it may seem somewhat doubtable, some experts speculate that this is the dog’s breed. Painted in the early 1900s, it’s quite popular and supposedly Marc’s own dog, named Ruthie. Marc became known for painting only animals, as he felt they were the only truly pure things in the world.
8. Earl Wettstein
Not a traditional artist, Earl Wettstein is retired from advertising and in his 70s. His hobby in retirement? Recreating classic paintings, with dachshunds as the stars. You can find his takes on the famous American Gothic scene, The Scream and more.
