Jonathan Swift’s Advice to a Dog Painter

Copy of Charles Jervas's portrait of Jonathan Swift via LIFE

Jonathan Swift died 265 years ago today.  His advice to dog painters is as incisive as ever.

"Advice to a Dog Painter"

Happiest of the spaniel race,
Painter, with thy colors grace,
Draw his forehead large and high,
Draw his blue and humid eye;
Draw his neck, so smooth and round,
Little neck with ribands bound;
And the musely swelling breast
Where the Loves and Graces rest;
And the spreading, even back,
Soft, and sleek, and glossy black;
And the tail that gently twines,
Like the tendrils of the vines;
And the silky twisted hair,
Shadowing thick the velvet ear;
Velvet ears which, hanging low,
O'er the veiny temples flow.

— Jonathan Swift (1665 – 1745), poem included in The Dog's Book of Verse by J. Earl Clauson.

Via The Pet Museum.