Herbert Dicksee’s Deerhounds

Sometimes wrongly described as Wolfhounds by owners and by art dealers

by Mike Herwin

I had early experience of some art dealers' motives for calling them wolfhounds, when I bought my first Dicksee deerhound, “On the Moors”. Soon after I had purchased it, I was approached by an American dealer, who wanted to buy my “Wolfhound” picture. I said that it was a deerhound and based on Dicksee’s own dog, as I had been advised by Nick Waters, whose knowledge of canine art and success in canine activities, was and still is far greater than mine. The dealer said that she knew it was a deerhound but it could be sold as a wolfhound for far more money than it could  as a deerhound, and that there were more wolfhound owners than deerhound ones. For once in my life I resisted temptation and kept “On The Moors”,as I love this particular etching and deerhounds generally. I have owned one, although Irish water spaniels and German shorthaired pointers are my main breeds. See "How I started collecting Dicksee" Herbert Dicksee and article by Nick Waters on the art of Dicksee Nick on Dicksee

As I continued to build my collection of Dicksees and of his deerhounds in particular, it struck me that there was a very close resemblance between the physical characteristics of the Dicksee deerhounds, whether they were done in the early 1890’s or the late 1920’s. I came to the conclusion that they were all based on one dog, probably HD’s own dog, Sir Brian and that they were all strong, well built masculine hounds. These similarities go well beyond just similarity of dogs within a breed or even within a bloodline. This theory was reinforced when I bought a copy of the Dutch facsimile issue of Van Bylandt’s 1904 edition, “Dogs of All Nations”, which has an illustration by Dicksee of Sir Brian. Sir Brian was born in 1889 and, in fact, competed at Crufts in February 1892, under, funnily enough, the man who did more than anyone to create the modern wolfhound, Capt Graham. He won the novice class and Capt Graham described him as a good fronted and taking young dog, with indifferent hocks. Incidentally it was previously believed that the only dog which Dicksee showed was his French Bulldog, Shaver, which was much later, so obviously he had far longer connections with dog showing than we previously thought.

I can understand why Wolfhound owners like to claim Dicksee deerhounds as their own. As, at the time of the first Dicksee depictions, most of the dogs registered as Irish Wolfhounds owed far more of their blood to the Deerhound than they did to any any dog of ancient Irish lineage, the similarities between a strong masculine deerhound and a wolfhound as re-created by Capt Graham, Col Garnier and others is understandable. 

Several of Sir Brian’s deerhound ancestors were used by Capt Graham in his breeding programme to re-create the Irish Wolfhound including his paternal grand dam, Clarke’s Lufra and both his paternal grandsire’s parents, Ch Bevis SB4755 and Sheila SB7887. On his dam’s side both his grandparents were sired by Cooper’s Bhoroo, who appears several times in wolfhound lines. Interestingly, behind Bhoroo is Capt Graham’s Swaran. This in Graham’s Deerhound pedigrees is shown as by a deerhound, Ch Torunn SB151 out of Islay, with no indication that Islay is anything but a pure deerhound. However in Graham’s wolfhound pedigrees, Islay is by Molloy (no further information available about his pedigree given), out of Young Donagh, in turn out of Old Donagh, an Irish dog claimed to go back to the Richardson dogs of the 1840’s. However Young Donagh’s sire, Ettrick is 75% deerhound and there is a dash of a dog sold as a mastiff in a London street market. For more details on Deerhound and Irish Wolfhound breeding, go to my searchable data bases for the breeds at www.worldpedigrees.com

There was a discussion of the large proportion of the wolfhound genetic pool that was Deerhound, with the Great Dane contribution also exceeding that of any “Irish dogs”. This caused a negative reaction from an American wolfhound lady, particularly when I said that most of the connection to the hounds of Cuchulain was myth creation by wolfhound breeders.

I went on to say that wolfhound breeders and greedy art dealers had seized upon Dicksee’s depictions of deerhounds to claim that they were wolfhounds. The American lady, in effect, said that I was talking nonsense. In the end, she admitted, that some Dicksees might be deerhounds but went on to say:-

“However, there are Dicksee etchings of  wolfhounds, definitely wolfhounds, not deerhounds, e.g.,   "Comrades",  "The Empty Chair" (copied later by someone else), "Silent  Sympathy", and, sorry,  "Vanished Hand".  

Firstly “ The Empty Chair” is not by Herbert Dicksee at all. There are two similar images. The better known and earlier one is by Briton Riviere, despite his name English not French, and a Huguenot descendant. The later one is by O B MacCammon in 1912. Although it is a reversed image, it has many elements of the Riviere but is much cruder. 
Additional information has come to light since about "The Empty Chair". Briton Riviere was a close friend of the artist Clarence Dobell from the 1850's onward. Clarence's brother was the poet, Sydney Dobell, who was an important early breeder of deerhounds. According to the long biographical article in the Art Journal, by Walter Armstrong, "The Empty Chair" (oil painting) was first hung at the Dudley Gallery in 1869 and was of "a fine specimen of Sydney Dobell's breed of deerhounds leaning against a chair with a cloak thrown over it." There is even a postscript that the breeding came from Dobell's "Maida", later to appear in the first edition of the Stud Book. Later, Riviere married Sydney and Clarence's sister, so his close association with the deerhound is fully established.

Secondly “Silent Sympathy” is a deerhound and my evidence for this is an article by Enoch Scribe, on the art of Herbert Dicksee from the Windsor Magazine of April 1906. The whole article is on another page of this site Windsor Magazine 1906 but this extract proves the point:-
Windsor Magazine 1906 Article by Enoch Scribe, "The Art of Mr. Herbert Dicksee."

“The artist’s first great popular success was attained by his plate, “Silent Sympathy.”  This production occupied him many months, as he had to try several models before he felt satisfied.  The labour he spent on it, however, received its due reward in the immediate favour shown by the public when he issued it in 1894. The plate depicts a young and handsome girl seated in a wicker armchair, with her hand supporting her head of flowing tresses, gazing at the fire with an air of sad anxiety.  At her side, his graceful forelegs stretched across the rug, lies a stately deerhound, resting his chin on the knees of his mistress and looking up to her in “silent sympathy.”  The sweet communion thus touchingly expressed at once secured the interest of an appreciative public.”

Mr Scribe also later adds:-
“Again, the artist left his friends of the forest, this time for his own dogs.  As they lay before the hearth, fascinated by the fire, they suggested to him his etching of “Fire Worshippers.” Since his own dog was the deerhound, Sir Brian, this adds another Dicksee as a definite deerhound. A separate page of this site is devoted to Sir Brian, including the illustration of him and his pedigree. 

Thirdly “Vanished Hand”, the full title for which is “Oh for the touch of a vanished hand”. In the January 1895 Kennel Gazette there was a review of deerhound activities for 1894. It was written by Mr R Hood Wright, who made a valuable contribution to the development of several breeds, but notably deerhounds. He also was an early breeder of wolfhounds. It read as follows:-
"Sporting history cannot speak too much of the qualities and pedigrees of the various beautiful dogs we possess but ancient and modern history are replete again and again with the services of the Deerhound in peace and war. Novelists from Fielding, Miss Austin, Sir Walter Scott, to the shilling shocker - and a Deerhound is always to the front. Artists - Herring, Landseer and a long list - have peopled our galleries with the Deerhound
posing as the companion of the sportsman, those distinguished at the Bar or the Senate, to crowned heads and ladies of the court. Herbert Dicksee, with Sir Brian idealised as his model, has awakened a note of sympathy in his priceless picture, "Oh for the touch of a vanished hand."
This not only shows that the picture was of a deerhound but of a specific deerhound, as I surmised.

 I do not have any absolute proof that the hound in Comrades is a deerhound but as with other Dicksee deerhounds there are close similarities to Sir Brian, even though he was long dead by then. Dicksee was not averse to reworking a theme. “Goodbye” of 1902 shows a lady with a deerhound by some steps at Penshurst Place in Kent. The Old Garden  of 1921 shows the same steps with a lady, with a more modern hemline and a deerhound. I have seen the same steps and apart from altering the angles and roofline of the house, which he did for dramatic effect, the later picture seems a definite rework of  “Goodbye. However I have challenged the American lady to provide proof that the hound in Comrades is a Wolfhound, or any other image listed as deerhound in the Dicksee catalogue, is a Wolfhound  and that I will eat humble pie if she does.

Yet another Dicksee is definitely a deerhound and is titled in the Frost and Reed catalogue as "A Scottish Deerhound". Please browse the catalogue. The Dicksee deerhound etchings run from HD10701 to 10713 at HD Dogs "After Chevy Chase" After Chevy Chase and "Sir Brian" Sir Brian have their own pages. Other articles on Dicksee are also illustrated.