I love these vintage book cover drawings. They often are done in gold on a dark background and have a bit more texture than the images I usually work with. In this case, we have a golden dog image. While most of the dog illustrations by Friedrich Wilhelm Keyl (1823-1871) included in Dog Breaking do identify the breed represented, this drawing didn’t – though it would appear to be a retriever of some sort.
Our golden friend appears to have spotted something and is in the middle of pointing it out to his, or her, master, or mistress. His head is facing straight out as is his tail; almost doubling his length. He is standing amongst some grasses, so perhaps he has rousted a game bird like a turkey or goose. With the mottled green, textured background, seems like this would be a great image for mixed media or web work.
This image is copyright free and in the public domain anywhere that extends copyrights 70 years after death or at least 120 years after publication when the original illustrator is unknown.
