Rare Domestic Dog Oil Portrait by John Trivett. Nettleship — Rough Collie in Landscape

🖼️🐕 Rare Domestic Dog Portrait by J. T. Nettleship — Rough Collie in Landscape, 1898 (Oil on Canvas)

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🌟 Overview

Offered here is a characterful late-Victorian oil portrait of a Rough (Scottish) Collie, painted and signed in 1898 by the noted British animal painter John Trivett Nettleship (1841–1902). The collie stands proudly in left profile within an open landscape, combining the dignity of formal portraiture with a wonderfully lifelike sense of presence and personality 🐾
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🐕 Subject & Medium

A beautifully observed sable-and-white collie with the breed’s refined head, intelligent eye, and alert “tipped” ears—captured as both a fine pedigree animal and a cherished companion ❤️
🎨 Medium: Traditional oil on canvas
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🎨 Composition & Technique

Nettleship places the collie strongly in the foreground, slightly off-centre, with the landscape receding behind—giving the sitter real “portrait” authority 🏆
✨ The head and ruff are handled with particular care, with animated brushwork through the mane and softer modelling along the body and legs.
🌿 Warm sable browns and golden tones are balanced by crisp whites at the chest and collar, set against a subdued landscape palette so nothing competes with the sitter.
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✍️ Signed & Dated

Signed and dated lower corner:
🖊️ “J. T. Nettleship 1898”
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👨🎨 About the Artist

John Trivett Nettleship was a respected Victorian animal painter, celebrated especially for dramatic wild-animal subjects 🦁🐅. Because of this, finished portraits of domesticated dogs are comparatively scarce in his oeuvre—making this signed and dated collie an appealing and more intimate example for collectors 🏛️
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🕰️ Historical Interest

This portrait sits firmly within the Victorian passion for pedigree dogs and commissioned animal portraits 🐕🦺🏅, capturing the collie at a key moment in the breed’s late-19th-century development.
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📏 Dimensions (framed)

• 📐 Height: 66 cm

• 📐 Width: 81 cm

• 📐 Depth: 5 cm
  A strong, pleasing interior size—ideal above a fireplace, console, or sofa, and equally suited to a study, library, or office reception 🏡
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🪞 Frame

Presented in a recently fitted gilt moulded decorative frame (Larson-Juhl style), chosen to complement the warm coat tones and soft landscape palette ✨
🔩 Hanging thread verso—ready to display.
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📜 Provenance

This painting enjoys unusually strong modern provenance for a late-19th-century dog portrait:

• 🖌️ Painted and signed by John Trivett Nettleship, 1898

• 🏠 Private Collection

• 🔨 Christie’s, London, 12 November 1971, lot 191 (Anon. sale)

• 🇩🇪 Private Collection, Germany (later 20th century)

• 🏛️ Auktionshaus Eppli, Stuttgart, 25 March 2023 (as Collie in front of landscape)

• 🇬🇧 Roseberys, London, 22 November 2023 (as Portrait of a Border Collie in a landscape)

• 🌐 Subsequent online auction, 5 April 2024 (as Portrait of a Scottish Rough Border Collie Dog)

• 🏷️ Cheshire Antiques Consultant LTD, United Kingdom – present collection
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🔍 Condition Report

Offered in fine used condition ✅
The canvas presents well overall. There are foxing stains and areas of age-related craquelure, with some historic paint touch-ups to parts of the background—entirely consistent with a genuine Victorian oil of this age 🕰️
🖼️ Set in a new, recently fitted gilt frame. Close-up photos are available on request.