Good Grief for Gus and Gwen
2 new paintings and an interview with author E.B. Bartels
I had the honor of talking with E.B. Bartels, author of Good Grief: On Loving Pets, Here and Thereafter.
Our dog’s death is not something people want to think about, but loving a dog means inevitably losing a dog. That is why E.B. wrote Good Grief. The book helps guardians think ahead about how to honor the animals they love. So, they will be prepared when the heart-wrenching time comes. “I wanted to have all these different options in one place. You can read it and think about it. Whether having a funeral or a service for my animal would be meaningful, or going someplace and scattering the ashes, commissioning a portrait, getting a tattoo, or even taxidermy.”
She further explained, “There are reasons why humans, since the beginning of time, have had different rituals when a person dies. There are funerals, headstones, and burial plots with people putting flowers on graves. “With pets, it's hard because there is no one societal standard thing to do. I think people feel like, Oh, well, I guess that means I shouldn't do anything. But, having rituals, having concrete things that you can do, really helps with grief.”
Good Grief is an important book. I highly recommend adding it to your bookshelves.
For her own family’s dogs, Carin Terriers Gus and Gwen, E.B. had each dog’s ceremony reflect their unique personalities. Here are Gwen and Gus’ portraits accompanied by their obituaries.
Gus (1997-2006)
Gustav Oliver was a Cairn Terrier with a total sense of adventure. He loved fishing with my dad and finding ways to break out of the house to visit the neighbors. (Though one time when we thought he ran away forever, he was actually in the house the whole time, stuck under a trundle bed in the guest room.) Gus was obsessed with food, and when he did run away, a sure-fire way to get him to come back was to throw a hot dog on the grill. He almost died when he was a puppy after eating a lamb bone out of someone's trash and tearing his esophagus, but after a major surgery and my mom lovingly feeding him through a tube to his stomach for several weeks, he survived and went on to live a fabulous and wild life––barking at seagulls, hanging his head out the window of the car, murdering baby bunnies, getting skunked multiple times, tolerating our other dog Gwen, and starring in my middle school science project videos (it’s up on YouTube if you want to go digging). Gus was an absolute legend.
Gwen (1999-2013)
My parents and I got our second Cairn Terrier, Gwendolyn Anastasia, from the "Puppies Galore" kennel in Charlton, MA, in the summer of 1999. Gwen 100% came from a puppy mill (I think in Oklahoma?) and was always a little distrusting and skittish. But she lived for fourteen years, and had so many adventures: hiding from thunderstorms in the bathroom and scaring anyone who went to pee, visiting the Wellesley College radio station when she came to campus, spending weekends with me on the fourth floor of 515 Blue Hill Avenue when I worked at Mother Caroline Academy, sneaking into the hospital in Maine to visit my aunt Christine, puking almost every time she rode in a car, flushing pheasants out of the tall grass on Fishers Island, and the time she murdered a snake that snuck into our house. Gwen was my friend for my awkward middle school years, all the way to graduate school. When we finally had to euthanize her in summer 2013, we chose to do it on July 3rd so she wouldn't have to suffer through another Fourth of July (she hated fireworks as well as thunder). I still miss her. She was such a good girl, even if my grandfather's nickname for her was "LB" (Little Bitch).
Weekly Roundup: The Dogs of Art History: Paintings to Know
This past week, I featured:
Title: Still Life with Dog
Artist: Pierre Bonnard, French, 1867 - 1947
Date: 1912
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 51.44 × 62.23 cm (20 1/4 × 24 1/2 in.)
Collection: National Gallery of Art
You Might Not Know: Bonnard’s love of dogs is apparent in his easily identifiable, colorful, and patterned scenes of everyday life. His depiction of intimate daily life led him to be called an “Intimist”. Of his 2,300 paintings created over his lifetime, approximately one-third contain animals. Ubu, Ravageau, Black, Pouchette, and Almond were the names of some of the canine companions that appear in his work. He was particularly fond of Dachshunds.
Title: Portrait of a Woman With A Dog
Artist: Catharina van Hemessen (Flemish, 1528 – after 1565 )
Date: 1551
Medium: oil on wood
Dimensions: 22.8 × 17.6 cm
Collection: National Gallery
You Might Not Know: During the 16th century, portraits of women and their tiny dogs were in vogue, and my favorite genre of dog paintings. Though she was born at a time when women were not allowed to engage in any form of art, Van Hemessen defied the societal norms of her time. She is the earliest Flemish artist for whom verifiable work, ten paintings, survived.
Title: Pointy
Artist: John Singer Sargent (American, 1856-1925)
Date: 1881
Medium: Oil on Panel
Dimensions: 10¾ x 8½ in. (27.3 x 21.6 cm.)
Collection: Private Collection
You Might Not Know: Pointy was the dog of socialite Louise Burckhardt, who was the daughter of expatriates living in Paris. The inscription on the back of the painting says““to my friend Louise.” Sargent also painted Louise’s portrait in 1882, which is part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art collection.
The Burckhardt family kept Pointy’s portrait until 1991, when they sold it at Sotheby’s. It was then sold again in 2007 at Christie's on June 22, 2007. The estimated selling price was $60,000 - $80,000, and it sold for $432,000.
I am curious about how the lettering for “Pointy” is so different than Sargent’s JSS signature.
Title: Julie Manet and her Greyhound Laertes
Artist: Berthe Morisot (French, 1841–1895)
Date: 1893
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 28.7 × 31.4 in (73 × 80 cm)
Collection: Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris
You Might Not Know: Morisot, although she was a founder of the Impressionist movement, is often referred to as the “forgotten Impressionist.” She should be as well-known as other Impressionists, such as her brother-in-law Édouard Manet, Degas, Renoir, and Monet. This painting is of her daughter, Julie, with her dog, Laertes, named after the character in Hamlet.
Title: Study of 17 dogs
Artist: Pieter Boel (Flemish, 1622 – 1674)
Date: between 1669 and 1674
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 8.9 in x 13.4 in (22.8 cm x 34.2 cm)
Collection: Louvre
You Might Not Know: Boel revolutionized animal painting by working directly from live animals in a natural setting. He moved to Paris and became a painter to Louis XIV, and painted the animal menagerie at Versailles. His work showed animals in their natural poses. This was different from the way people thought of animals at the time. Look at the way he shows the dog at the bottom center cleaning himself !!!
Thank you for being here,
Leigh