Thomas Laqueur | The Dog’s Gaze. A Visuel History | Penguin | 2025

Thomas Laqueur, The Dog’s Gaze. A Visuel History, Penguin, 2025

Long before the phrase ‘man’s best friend’, dogs were already standing beside us in art as in life. The Dog’s Gaze invites us to explore why they feature more than any other animal in the ways in which we picture ourselves and our stories.

Dogs have been ubiquitous in the worldmaking of visual artists as far back as the Palaeolithic age. From Giotto to Goya and Rubens to Rego, Thomas W. Laqueur shows what their presence – as hunting partners, beloved friends and even conduits to the afterlife – reveals about our own ways of seeing. Far from being mere motifs, dogs are an integral and intentional element of the images in which they appear: they provide narrative coherence; they look out and bear witness, often on the artist’s behalf; they illuminate our understanding of morality and melancholy and some, like us, become celebrities. Indeed, dogs in art are our social doppelgängers, our companions in looking and being.

Richly illustrated and lovingly written, The Dog’s Gaze examines the shared social history of our two species and offers fresh insights into the human condition through the eyes of our canine companions.

Anne Simon

Anne Simon est Directrice de recherche au CNRS et Professeure à l'Ecole normale supérieure (Paris). Responsable du Centre international d'étude… Lire la suite

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