Robert Hotz Esquire and Bulldog (1887): Art, History and Details

Robert Hotz Esquire and Bulldog (1887) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Raja Deen Dayal (Indian, 1844–1905).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Robert Hotz (1844–1923), a professional photographer with studios in Calcutta and Shimla, poses with his bulldog, a breed that had symbolized England since the 1700s. Many British people came with or imported dogs to India. The British relied on their Indian servants to walk, feed, and care for the animals. Before the British arrived, Indian people rarely kept dogs as pets. Historically, in Indian art, dogs and jackals were associated with cremation grounds and were not folded into scenes of domestic life.

Object facts

• Title: Robert Hotz Esquire and Bulldog
• Date: 1887
• Creator attribution: Raja Deen Dayal (Indian, 1844–1905)
• Culture: India
• Type: Photograph
• Technique: albumen print
• Dimensions: Image: 13.2 x 19.8 cm (5 3/16 x 7 13/16 in.); Paper: 13.2 x 19.8 cm (5 3/16 x 7 13/16 in.)
• Collection: PH - Misc. 19th Century
• Department: Photography
• Accession number: 2016.266.12

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.