Peggy Guggenheim: Dog, Art Lover

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20th Century Dog Art, Dog Art Photography

Peggy Guggenheim with her dogs on the roof of her Venetian palazzo by David Seymour, 1950

Sixty-seven years ago this week Peggy Guggenheim opened her gallery Art of this Century and brought together the avant-garde stars of war-torn Europe (Brancusi, Picasso, Kandinsky, Chagall,
Mondrian, Duchamp, Picabia, Dali, Braque, Magritte, Dali) with the emerging artists of America (Pollock, Motherwell, de Kooning, Rothko). With the her gallery's launch she changed the course of Western art forever. Peggy loved fame, art, sex, penny pinching, and dogs. Today's post is dedicated to Peggy and her beloved Lhasa Apsos.

Benita and Peggy Guggenheim with Twinkle (not a Lhasa Apso) at the Third Annual Dog Show of the Westchester Kennel Club at Gedney Farms, 1919.

The Grand Canal entrance to her Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, during the exhibition of contemporary sculpture with which opened her new home to the public for the first time, September 1949. Via Frey Lhasa Apso Kennel.

Anton Gill biographies. Read good review of one here.

At her Venice palazzo, 1961

The plaque at her Venice palazzo where her fourteen dogs are buried. Peggy is buried beside them.

Comments

6 responses to “Peggy Guggenheim: Dog, Art Lover”

October 22, 2009

Michelle Page

That’s fascinating! Good thing Peggy’s luck with dog longevity got better as the years passed. I got a Danger Dog order for a 26-year-old dog, Eleanor, yesterday. I’ve asked the owner what she fed Eleanor. Opening tonight at the GhettoGloss Gallery with 193 dogs on the walls. Wish me luck. Darby is included.

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October 22, 2009

Elizabeth A

I love this post. Those photos are amazing, particularly the one of her and her sister. The clothes! The style! And then there’s the gravestone of the dogs —
Thanks, Moira!

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October 23, 2009

Sue

I love the idea of the marker listing all her dogs. I think I might do something like this for my dogs.

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April 9, 2011

Ian R. MacCannell

That is a Japanese chin in the photo of Peggy and her sister at Westminster.

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January 24, 2015

Cat

Or could be a King Charles Cavalier.

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November 30, 2017

Larry Adams

Ian MacCannell is correct, except at that time the dog breed was known as Japanese Spaniels. The people at the Peggy Guggenheim Museum insist on calling her dogs Lhasa Terriers instead of the proper Lhasa Apsos. The docents get rather defensive about being corrected–after all they believe they are the last word. It is true that Lhasa Apsos were once known as Lhasa Terriers, but the title did not last long as they obviously are not terriers.
I am also a bit concerned if indeed Peggy’s dogs are Lhasas. The first one arrived in the USA in 1933, and Peggy’s first dog was apparently acquired by her in 1946 in Europe. The pictures actually look more like Shih Tzus to me, but suggesting that the dogs are of that breed probably brings up more unwanted questions!

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